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It's a cute idea. Unfortunately (and I mean that sincerely in this case because it's a nice idea), deceiving children is unethical. In medical school I worked
by carbocation 13y ago
It's a cute idea. Unfortunately (and I mean that sincerely in this case because it's a nice idea), deceiving children is unethical.
In medical school I worked with a pediatrician who had a patient brought by her mother, a foreign physician. She had told her daughter she was taking her to visit "a friend" to help reduce the time that she would worry about shots and other unpleasantries.
The physician, upon hearing her ruse, explained the ethical landscape in the United States and referred the family to a different doctor, feeling that he would never be able to restore the bond of trust that the mother had frayed.
- chris-allnutt 13y agoI don't think this is on the side of deceiving a child. This is really a imaginative aid to a normally traumatic experience, the child knows its not a pirate or spaceship, that's rather obvious even to a 2 year old. I do agree with the example you give tho, that truly is a blatant deterioration or trust. I don't feel that this is on the same level of destructive misrepresentation.
- Ellipsis753 13y agoI think he means the idea of pretending it's a transporter. I would be against that too as I would feel bad deceiving kids.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- true_religion 13y agoDoctors can not be 'friends'? I'm not really seeing the ruse here.
- wpietri 13y agoI believe the ruse is that the kid was expecting a normal visit to a parent's friend, not having a stranger poke holes in you with strange instruments.
- true_religion 13y agoWell that's certainly possible, but I didn't read it that way. I imagined it more like having the child trust the doctor because its a friend of his parents, as opposed to a 'stranger'.