The same op-ed section from the Boston globe that I quoted in my earlier post "Medicine Hates Moms" contained the following question from Janet James of Lunenburg, MA:"Should students with dyslexia and attention disorders be allowed into medical school?"
The comments section under "Medicine Hates Moms" has taken an interesting turn thanks to a thoughtful, articulate reader who got me thinking about medicine and learning disabilities, particularly about the issues raised by James's question above. A lot of my thoughts on the subject can be found in that section, so I won't rehash those here, except to say that I think a lot of people erroneously equate "disability" with "inability," and I think this does people with learning disabilities and ADHD an injustice.
I'm interested in medical education and curious to know more about people''s thoughts on this. Please feel free to comment on the subject if you'd like, but please, please, please, in the wake of having had to delete a comment already due to obscenity and extreme disrespect, I ask that folks refrain from being acrimonious, disparaging, contemptuous, condescending, obscene, or insulting, even if offering criticism. Please express your opinions graciously, whatever they may be - with passion and even indignation if you feel them, certainly, but never without respect for fellow-readers and writers here.
In particular I'm interested to know
-Do you know professional people with learning disabilities?
-Do you think people with learning disabilities should be excluded from any particular profession? Why/why not?
-What about neuropsychological disorders?
-Where do you draw the line in terms of excluding people with shortcomings from the medical profession?
-What measures are appropriate for predicting whether someone will be a good physician or not? Or IS a good physician or not?
