Talk:Conventional medicine/Archive 1

message: *ERROR 01 : Deleting POVs as if they didn't exist. We only throw the baby away with the water. For NPOV wouldn't exist without POVs, of which they are only a mean, a median and a mode - pick your own choice.
We must leave POVs in place, only mark them as such. Indeed, without letting POVs in, we cannot possibly form a NPOV but only a biased surrogate of balance, for there are no POVs to be balanced in the first place; Conversely, if all POVs are heard, a golden mean, a harmonical, natural, indeed "automatic" NPOV ensues, as the right proportion of POVs. 
*ERROR 02 : Diabolizing and banning authors on POV editing grounds.
This is, in my long experience, the most common, time consuming error in Wiki. Look at all hot issues around us ! The deletion of POVs before they make themselves heard is rampant. I cannot possibly stress more that we must not only not hunt them, but cherish them and formulate them properly, freely, well heard - and argue them - only marking them as such - as POVs. Leaving them out in cold, and starting "it" all over again (the n-th time, I must say) might look attractive for a sysop who doesn't write articles herself, and only thrashes them, but is wrong, and much worse - only a delusion. POVs are not only surviving there, but they come back even hotter :O) Usually in another article. From iridology to reflexology to AM to CM - you name it. Than POV police hunts them away, complete with authors via various arbitrations and bans, and so on, until they are too hot and real for anybody to ignore. That's when they become mainstream and drag the NPOV towards them. NOBODY has an inborn genetic trait to edit NPOVs. Every NPOV only exists as a balance and a mean, median and mode of ALL POVs. NPOVs exist only after, and because of POVs. Learning fast from my previous and impending future bans... What a waste in throwing the baby away with the water, what a waste. Too clean of POVs is only a dreadful monster megaPOV :O )- irismeister 17:12, 2004 Mar 25 (UTC)
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*1. The cost of medical services has nothing to do with medicine as a science. This is a consequence of social policy.
*2. All human activities are prone to error. So what? The fact that humans practice medicine imperfectly is not a criticism of medicine. I think you'll find that the absence of medicine is much more dangerous.
*3. Medicine is by definition rational. A good definition of medicine would be "the application of reason to the prevention and cure of illness." That which is not rational (ie, faith healing) is not medicine.
*Anyway none of those points is relevant to my earlier point. The title of this article is inherently POV - there is no such thing as "conventional medicine." There is only Medicine and non-medicine. The choice of title demonstrates the POVistic intent of whoever created it. That is why it should be deleted.
*And Theresa, what on earth is "NPOV criticism"?
Adam 15:29, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: hi Adam & Theresa - thank you so much for coming! don't get me wrong Adam I'm on your side I think... I just got home from work in a very modern hospital where I was personally giving people synthetic drugs not herbs... I use BIG needles but this aint acupuncture! I have a sound grasp of applied statistics and I believe in randomised double blind controlled trials to guide my pracitce. but this page is more about the reality of the practice of medicine. I'm coming in as an insider seeing the merits of self-criticism - I also don't want to stifle criticism of my belief system because I have faith in my belief in science (he he!! I cannot believe I just said that!! but its true!) you wont have to look hard in medical literature to find my concerns freely aired. since i work in the hospital i see the problems on first hand they are real and warrent rational and objective discussion. That's why I see a legitimate role for this page. Maybe the name of this page is wrong and it should go somewhere else.--Erich gasboy 15:55, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

text: Like your style Theresa! --Erich gasboy 16:05, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: COMMON ERRORS