Medical Pests

Abstract

RECENTLY, a group exchanged our personal experiences with zealots intent on converting us to their religions. We understood their motivation and admired their devotion to their church and its tenets. Nevertheless, we agreed that when such individuals persisted in conversion attempts in the face of polite but firm disinterest, they became pests. Later, I read that some physicians were proposing that doctors who smoke cigarettes should lose their hospital privileges and perhaps their licenses to practice medicine. I realized then that physician proselytizers, like religious proselytizers, were pests. Like the religious zealot, the medical zealot refuses to admit that others are aware of his or her beliefs. The zealot also refuses to admit that others may have weighed the pros and cons of conversion and have decided to risk damnation by continuing their sinful ways. Smoking, lack of exercise, and high-fat diets are the major targets of our current medical