Medicine: a reasonable case for affirmative action in med school admissions

We know that minority physicians, dentists and nurses are more likely to serve minority and medically underserved populations, yet there is a severe shortage of minorities in the health professions. Without much more diversity in the health workforce, minorities will continue to suffer.

As a physician, you serve a patient. When I practice, I'll keep my mouth shut about politics and religion. I'll nod my head, be honest, and focus on the universe of my patient. I've considered obstetrics, but one major roadblock stands in the way of that: I'm male. Not that residency directors discriminate, if anything they WANT more males for some reason, but ask women who they want to go to, and most women want want to go to a male. Is that discrimination? Yes. Would it be wrong for a patient to not want to see a physician because he was black or hispanic? Yes. But you know what? It doesn't matter, most of the time--now, if the only person qualified to do that emergency apendectomy on the KKK member is an African American, Bubba is just going to have to deal with Dr. Obama's service; his autonomy means jack shit to me then.

But if we just sit and say that it's dumb for minorities to not want to go to white doctors (people haven't forgotten Tuskeegee, and probably never will), or if we ignore the fact that minorities in medicine are more likely to practice in areas of minority populations (to some extent), we're worrying about our own problems instead of the patient's. I'm a white male. I'll deal with it. Medicine might be capitalistic in our country, and that's fine and all, but when we're more worried about our own pocketbooks than our patients' well-being (and believe me, I realize there are more than enough good reasons other than money to want to not give a damn about patients who seem to fight their own health--we might be paternalistic, but we do mean well), then we don't have much business practicing the art.