So apparently in the UK some muslim medical students are refusing to practice basic medical skills. Claiming it violates their religious beliefs they refuse to learn about treating alcoholism or treating STDs and some of them are even refusing to do basic examinations of female patients. Apparently there is some thought that maybe they shouldn’t be kicked out of med school for these lapses.

Now if private companies want to give religious employees special exemptions I think it’s radically unfair but that’s their business. If you want to let your muslim cashiers call over someone else to sell alcohol that’s up to you and you’re the one who pays the price of annoyed customers. However, when we are talking about what effectively amount to government standards for the education of doctors that’s a whole other matter. Either it is important that we make doctors learn these skills and accredit them accordingly or it isn’t. Why the hell does it matter that you don’t want to learn it because of your religion rather than because you think it’s gross or just really really don’t want to?

Still, it might be a good idea to tolerate things like not treating women if this was a sufficiently widespread cultural practice (don’t think it is). Of course if I was the UK health system I would never hire such a person if there were alternatives but that’s another matter. However, refusing to learn about things like alcohol abuse significantly hampers a doctor’s ability to treat patients. It isn’t something like gender where the doctor could (theoretically) just avoid situations where the skill is required. Moreover, it is hard enough to get people to be honest and admit embarrassing issues like STDs if some doctors refuse to listen or call in their colleague to deal with the matter it poses a serious health threat.

This really fucking pisses me off. Saying some man in the sky told me to do it shouldn’t be a magic pass to do whatever the fuck you want. Having absurd stories about why it is important for you to do something shouldn’t make us more likely to accommodate you. Sure there is something to be said for increasing utility by respecting strong irrational beliefs but that’s no excuse not to create a general system to handle strongly felt preferences rather than behaving as if it was reasonable to have these stupid beliefs.

It shouldn’t have to be said but obviously I feel the same way about Christian doctors who refuse to properly console patients about the abortion option.