EDITORIAL – Something good

If there is one thing good that came out of that controversial procedure performed on a gay patient at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center to remove a spray can lodged in his rectum following a night of kinky sex, it is that it exposed many things about many people.

Some have been exposed for their hypocrisy, and some for their blind loyalty to their profession even if some of their co-professionals clearly committed very glaring and deplorable lapses. Some were even exposed as simply not having gotten the point.

The gay patient clearly committed something that is both shocking and embarrassing to society. But if he was to be punished for his misdeeds, it was not up to his attending doctors and nurses to mete out. There is a much better judge for that.

Doctors and nurses are required to act with the highest sense of professionalism while in the performance of their duties. They are never supposed to mock and make fun of their patients, whatever circumstances they may be in.

Yet some just do not get it. Some of their co-professionals, who have rushed to their blind defense, are extolling how these doctors and nurses have saved countless lives and how they are so badly needed by the “ poorest of the poor. “

So, what are they trying to tell us, that just because they have saved lives and are badly needed, that they now have the license to mock their patients? Using that logic, is it then all right for us to do evil just because we may have done something good in our lives?

Just as shocking was that proposition by a priest that the gay man is to blame because of the sinful activities he has indulged in. Well, since we are all sinners, including this priest, is it now open season on all of us by those to whom we entrust our health secrets?

The video-taking of the procedure and posting it on YouTube is not even the main issue here. The main issue is how the doctors and nurses behaved toward their patient. Preservation of dignity is at the root of all individual rights. It is inviolable.