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The question on the floor is: Can doctors be fully trusted?

Because we are human beings and fallible, and because the human heart and mind is so unpredictable, my opinion on whether or not doctors can be fully trusted is absolutely not.

However, that does not mean that if a doctor gives you advice about taking a certain medication for a life threatening condition that he or she should be ignored, and you go and practice "flying by the seat of your pants, Frank Sinatra I'll do it my way medicine" on yourself.

This is a very touchy and complex question because at certain times and in certain situations one must trust one's medical professional based on the fact that the latter has more comprehensive information acquired through decades of study and practice. But can a doctor be fully trusted? Once again, I say no.

Case in point: When my daughter was 5 years old she came down with a very nasty strain of the influenza virus which she caught from her babysitter. I was a single mother at the time, living in a housing project, with no car, and it was the middle of winter so I couldn't take her to the doctor's office downtown. I called the pediatrician on call at the clinic, and she gave me a prescription for a medicine that, while it had been proven in prior cases to be effective, I had some reservations about the medicine because it was known to contain elements known as PPGs which could prove harmful or even fatal to children my daughter's age and younger. I called the pharmacy, spoke with the pharmacist who assured me the medicine was safe, and had a bottle of the medicine delivered to my apartment. I also consulted a naturopathic manual I had bought prior to giving birth to my daughter, and looked up the signs of toxicity this medicine might cause if administered. Medicines with PPGs cause vomiting as the first symptom of possible toxicity. I gave my daughter a dose of the medicine, and lo and behold, she immediately threw up the concoction! Imagine my fear, worry and outrage at having been duped both by the doctor and the pharmacist! I immediately poured the foul mixture down the sink drain, and proceeded to take care of my daughter myself. She doesn't remember that experience now at 13, but I do, and needless to say, it was a turning point in my life at the way I look at practitioners in the medical field.

Long story short, that episode proved two things: The practice of medicine is, like everything else, a business in which the participants

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