<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Stephanie,

You wrote that you feel that the president has chosen to put himself in the
public's eye and that having done so has made his health a public concern.
I think we will have to agree to disagree, because I strongly believe that
even the most public figures have a right to privacy in their personal
matters.

You also wrote:

"I pay my doctor for his technical training,
for his experience with other patients, and for interpreting my
symptoms.  As a paid professional, I expect him to know the
questions to ask and how to answer them, insofar as science allows."

Absolutely. But not every doctor is going to be good at doing these things,
unfortunately, just like not every mechanic is going to fix your car when
you bring it to him/her with a problem. Just because someone has gone
through years of training doesn't mean that they are going to get it right
the first time they encounter a disease in the field. This is why I feel
that it is so important that we take responsibility for our own health. The
doctor is the technician, trained to observe symptoms and identify their
cause, but even the best doctor doesn't have the ability to cure disease.
It is this misconception that doctors have the power to cure disease that I
was alluding to when I suggested that it is we who have deified physicians
rather than physicians themselves.

Certainly there is respect due to someone who has successfully completed a
difficult course of study, and yes, they do also deserve a fair salary in
return. But this doesn't mean that we should delude ourselves into thinking
that medical school gives someone a sort of "healing power", because it
doesn't. Until we can demystify medicine by giving our children the proper
tools to understand the basic concepts of science so that they can ask the
right questions, this myth that if you can somehow just find a "good"
doctor that then he/she will "cure" you will continue to perpetuate, and
people will continue to be disillusioned and frustrated when they encounter
obstacles to their good health.

I don't mean that everyone needs to get a college degree in science, but
just to get an understanding of scientific principles so that they can
understand in the most basic terms what a blood test is, what a protein is,
what the immune system does etc. I knew about these things things by the
time I graduated from high school, although I certainly wasn't an expert! I
continue to believe that it is the myth that it is the doctor who cures
disease rather than the tablets that the pharmacist gives you (which
actually solve the problem) that is the major reason behind the public's
awe of medical professionals. The true driving force behind advancements in
medicine are the billions of dollars poured into pharmaceutical research
and development to discover new drugs, and any honest doctor will attest to
that.

I hope that this has clarified my position, and I thank you for your
considered and articulate opinion.