Yes

by Destiny Song

Created on: July 11, 2011

Human behavior truly baffles me.

We condemn hypocrisy, yet unwittingly committing it the very next day. We want the best in life, without wanting to commit anything personal towards our goal. We want the people around us to give us the best treatment possible, and yet, our attitude and interactions make this a physical impossibility.

We go to doctors and specialists, wanting the best treatment possible, wanting a clean bill of health. Yet we withhold information from them. We don’t follow their orders to the word, skimming here and skipping there. We follow our own instincts, believing that we know better than the professionals. And then, when we finally succumb to our initial worries, we sue them for all they’ve got.

It’s just another sad reality of modern society.

How can we expect doctors to treat us properly, to give us the right medicine and advice, if we withhold information from them, and for simple, selfish reasons such as pride and embarrassment? Because let’s face it; the only reason why we would conceal information is because we feel a sense of embarrassment at our actions, knowing them to be as unhealthy as they are; and the correct response is not to avoid and conceal it, but to change our wanton habits.

But if adults are not willing to tell the truth, perhaps their wide-eyed, innocent, children will?

The presence of children changes the ball game altogether. Now, health habits affect not one person, but possibly two people, be it due to side effects from actions such as smoking, or due to future mimicry by the still-learning child. And doctors now have access to a new source of information, who due to their innocence and youth, can be reasonably assumed to be a reliable source.

In the long run, who benefits? Surely not the doctor, who earns the same wage as normal, and who has to take the extra effort to coax information out of the child. In the end, the one who benefits is the adult and child themselves; information allows proper treatment to be administered, and makes future recovery all the more likely.

What if the child starts questioning the adult’s habits, if the child’s authority seemingly overshadows that of the parent? If the habits are truly malignant, then all the more should these innocent questions evoke self-reflection; is it wise to truly continue persisting in these bad habits, when even your child is questioning them? The very fact that your child can convey your bad habits to the doctor, already implies that the child has long noticed these habits, and the danger of mimicry becomes much more evident.

This not only sets a good example for the child, letting him learn early on about which health problems and bad habits to avoid, but also adds extra pressure on the parent to cease these bad habits; and despite all the claims of freedom of choice, a certain self-control must be imposed for the benefits of health. And the reason why the adult saw a doctor in the first place, is due to matters of health concerns, is it not?

But what about the sacred privacy of information, the freedom to do as you choose? Well, if the individual had no intention of sharing information for the sake of health, then why go the doctor in the first place? We cannot take doctors as miracle workers, to treat our symptoms without knowing what health habits caused them in the first place; doctors need information to work on, in order to prescribe the correct treatment. It’s true that everyone has the freedom of choice and the right to his own affairs; but if he is unwilling to trade them up for the benefits of healthcare and proper treatment, then it makes much more sense to avoid the doctors in the first place.

So, in essence, why not? Asking children questions about their parent’s health habits gives doctors more information to work on, in order to prescribe proper treatment. It allows the adult to get what he wants by visiting the doctor in the first place; a healthier, better life. And it causes both child and adult to reflect on, and learn about, the nature of these bad habits, and puts pressure on both to cease or never start on, respectively, these malignant, health detrimental, habits.

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