Don't become a doctor #19 - biased

I have many gay patients. One travels over an hour to see me because he says I'm the only doctor who treats him like a person. One sees me because he has a crush on me. In real life, I've had gay men hit on me, so I have some basis for comparison. I don't do anything specifically to draw in gay patients. They just find their way to my practice.

In my heart, I have a lot of sympathy for my gay patients. It's a tough world out there, and being gay doesn't make it any easier, and especially now that there are so many doctors who let their faith and beliefs dictate the care they will provide. One of my gay patients told me how his previous doctor told him that he deserved to have HIV because of his sinful lifestyle. Wow. Yikes.

It's not my job to preach. It's not my call to say who is damned and who is saved. I don't get to look at a person and decide he is guilty or innocent. My job is to deliver medical care. And sometimes that means giving women birth control. And sometimes that means teaching a teenager about condoms. And sometimes that means talking to my pregnant patient about abortion. And sometimes that means that I see people who do things or believe things that I don't like. And that doesn't even cover gays. I like gay people. I can't believe we have devoted so much time and energy to trying to deny rights and freedoms to people who love each other.

I have a patient, he is a convicted rapist. He served his time, and now works a part time job and is 'retired'. He has several chronic medical conditions. His past doesn't mean that his diabetes doesn't need to be treated. He is still human, and still deserves to be treated like one.

If you cannot put your biases aside, and treat all people as deserving of medical care, and care for them without judgment, then you're probably best off staying away from medicine. You are not a priest. You job is to provide medical care appropriate to the patient, not your biases.