To: politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk
Re: Harold Shipman - the doctor who killed his patients

Date: Friday 10 December 04

Dear Sir/Madam,

I do not know much about the Harold Shipman case, except that it concerns a doctor, a general practitioner, who over the course of 2 decades murdered scores of his patients. No one seems to know what motivated him, except that generally it wasn't for material gain. Perhaps it was a sense of power that it gave him, over life and death, which intoxicated him and he became addicted to (as he had, I believe, been addicted to certain drugs). Whatever it was, surely Dr Shipman is more accurately described as a psychopath than as a criminal.

What I find most disturbing is that a psychopath was able to work completely unrecognised as a "general practitioner " for such an extended period of time. It was, as the inquiry set up to investigate it, says, an abominable failing on the part of the General Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for vetting and regulating doctors, but surely it is more than that: it is the structures of society at large (not just the GMC), which are still rooted in man's "more animal than human " nature, i.e.  the group looking after itself within the socio-economic environment (see The Socio-Economic Jungle), and the depth of human alienation in modern (materialistic, mass, media-mediated, commercial-consumer) society.

"Shipman report condemns doctors' watchdog"

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Medicine should be a "vocation ", which people are free to follow (or not!) as they feel the call and talent to do so. Too many people study medicine and become doctors because of its high social status (man's "more animal than human " nature again, seeking advantage in the socio-economic environment), rather than because they have a genuine calling and sufficient talent. This is why we have so many mediocre or downright bad and incompetent doctors, and why the main role of the GMC is to protect them from exposure (if it didn't it would have to strike off not just a few, but a large number of its members).

One thing we could do is to make it much easier for medical students to change to another field without loss of face, if they realise that it is not really what they are cut out to do. The same applies to teaching and many other professions as well.