Singapore : Proposing medical treatment along religious lines is unprofessional

Proposing medical treatment along religious lines is unprofessional

by Cho Jia Cai (The Straits Times Forum, 18 Apr 2006)

I attended a talk on Easter Friday at YMCA titled Spiritual roots of medicine and alternative therapy. Being a first-year medical student, I was intrigued and hoped to find out more about the basis of spirituality in promoting healing.

Instead, the speaker started lambasting at the other religions and alternative therapy, saying that Shamanism is the root of Celtic beliefs, African witch doctors, Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

On alternative therapy, she denounced acupuncture as traditional Chinese medicine having gotten its roots from shamanism in which rituals required needles to be poked onto a human body to expel evil spirits. She said Christians should know better than to take the Traditional Chinese Medicine Biomedical double degree from NTU.

In addition she told the audience that alternative therapy may work, but it was not the right thing to do and that Christian doctors should know better than to suggest the treatment to patients because yoga stems from Hinduism and Taiji comes from Taoism.

I got the impression that anything non-Christian is wrong. Listening to the talk was not only distressing, it was also traumatising.

I believe that as a patient, I would want to receive the best health care treatment possible, be it alterative or conventional therapy. Fracturing the range of treatment options along religious lines is not only unprofessional, it is narrow-minded as well.

If Singapore wishes to become a health care hub, such ideas are simply unacceptable. I cannot believe how it is possible that in present day Singapore, people can openly conduct such seminars that infringe on religious sensitivities.

And the worst thing is, this seminar has been conducted yearly since 2003. May I know which body regulates such talks and seminars, or can anyone register a venue and just say whatever he or she wants?