Shawbridge- I know lots of physicians who think that intravenous drug use is a direct contradiction to the Bible’s admonition to “Choose Life”. But their duty to their patients and the Hippocratic Oath supersedes whatever personal beliefs they may hold. They have an obligation to treat the drug-abuser without judgment in the same way that they have an obligation to tell a pregnant woman whose child has a genetic disorder which will cause death by age 3 that there are physicians who will terminate that pregnancy. The physician may not conceive of a scenario where she would terminate her own pregnancy- faced with that diagnosis- but she doesn’t get to withhold the information from her patient because it conflicts with her personal religious beliefs.
Is this compartmentalizing? I don’t know. But a doctor who cannot treat people who engage in a lifestyle/ make choices that violate their religious beliefs shouldn’t be practicing medicine IMHO. Go work for an HMO and do case review. Become an expert witness in medical malpractice cases. Get a job with a pharmaceutical company evaluating clinical trials. Work for a venture capital fund which scouts promising investments in device manufacturers.
But don’t treat actual, living patients if you do not want your beliefs tested with every person who walks through your door. And don’t do research where you have to question the source of every cell or piece of genetic material that ends up on your slide.
A conservative school MIGHT be a handicap when applying to medical schools. Call a few and ask if they have admitted students in the past who did their undergrad work at Liberty. Ask Liberty for names of graduates and names of medical schools that you can use to verify their claims that graduates are accepted into US medical schools.
Your son does not have to accept evolution as a valid theory in his personal world/theological view, but he does have to be able to work with it through his science courses. I am a pastor, and I do not agree with some of my members’ theories, for example. One member is suffering right now, and believes that God has caused this suffering for a purpose. I help her to see the suffering as some how holy, although I firmly believe that crap just happens. Arguing my viewpoint will not help her at this point.
Conservative Christians can be excellent doctors. My former doctor (he left the practice) was a great doc and I miss him a lot. When I was in his office one day for my own issues my blood pressure was very high, and I explained that it was probably because I’d gotten word that my son in law was in intensive care a thousand miles away due to a fungal infection in his lungs. The doc asked if he could pray with me, and I really appreciated it. He normally does not pray with patients, but he knew in this case that it was what I needed at the time (in addition to the treatment for the medical problem that had brought me there).
@blossom, that is what I’d call compartmentalizing. Without it, their religious beliefs override their professional obligations. If so, they shouldn’t choose that profession.
Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
– Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland