Should a convicted murderer ever be allowed to become a doctor?
Lawrence Altman writes about the strange situation in the NY Times, where, after a convicted murderer was expelled from Sweden’s most prestigious medical school, was admitted to a second medical school.
Dr. Altman also points to another case, where a medical student, convicted of rape, was only expelled after exhaustive court action.
What’s going on over there?
Apparently, Sweden is a society that is sympathetic to criminals, and, after having served their time, treats convicts like ordinary citizens. Additionally, Swedish universities are prohibited by law to do background checks on medical school applicants.
So, students are finding themselves debating these seemingly straight-forward issues: “If a rapist or a murderer with neo-Nazi motives can study to become a doctor, that causes a crisis that affects the entire medical profession.”
Really.
Why Sweden lets this even become an issue is beyond me. Convicted murders and rapists shouldn’t be given the chance to become doctors, no matter where you are in the world.
Related posts:
- How a nursing student got expelled for blogging
- Sweden has banned the practice of women patients requesting female gynecologists
- Single-payer in Sweden: A cautionary tale
- A doctor in Sweden deals with stress by performing oral sex
- Will Sicko change anything?
- Is loan forgiveness enough to convince students to choose primary care?
- Is hard work alone good enough for medical school?
{ 7 comments }
Interesting. So you feel any conviction is a life sentence then? Why let the murderer out if he’s such a danger he can’t study to be a doctor?
Now if doctors would only clean up their own house before pronouncing sentence on everyone else.
I think since the point of being a doctor is to HELP people and DO NO HARM, that having a convicted MURDERER being a doctor is ironic and dangerous! I don’t want someone who killed someone to be in charge of my health! It’s like letting a convicted child molester work at a preschool. You just DON’T DO IT. I don’t care if they work at a McDonald’s or as an accountant or electrician or any other trade they are good at. There are certain requirements as a person that should bar crazy people from having a hand in health care.
I am in total agreement here with Dr. Pho. The #1 goal of a doctor is to better patients’ quality of life. Committing murder or raping another is exactly AGAINST the practices of medicine and in no way should these individuals be allowed to practice medicine.
I do believe in second chances, however getting out a jail is that second chance.
This isn’t about giving people second chances or condemning them to a life where everyone judges them by the one time where they weren’t so pure. These are intelligent individuals who are perfectly aware of the consequences certain crimes will bring. I’m in total agreement with you, Dr. Pho. The first school was right to to expel the student, and that should always be the result. The minute we start introducing exceptions by letting people get away with such horrendous acts, we risk damaging the profession’s credibility for healing and doing no harm.
The idea is as stupid as it looks.
Moral fitness is criterion for a medical license and should be criterion for someone to be entrusted with the privileges of this profession everywhere.
Physicians are privileged to be a part of the most intimate details of another human beings life. Convicted rapists and murderers have violated the most intimate aspects of human life. Allowing a rapist or murderer to become entrusted with the responsibilities to public health physicians face, is a risk not worth taking. And from my biased point of view, you can replace “physician” with “nurse” in my comment and come to the same conclusion.
It’s about trust.
A UK student, convicted of burglary in November 2005, was admitted to
a second medical school after another medical school revoked his application upon learning of the conviction.
Ex-convicts have the right to move on and try to make something of their lives, but health care professionsare not the place for those who have ‘been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt’ to have demonstrated their lack of conscience,poor judgement, or unwillingness to conform to accepted societal mores.
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