Doctor's asking children strange questions.
Tonight I spoke with another father at my son's karate class. His daughter, a year older than my boy, recently had a visit with a pediatrician at Kaiser. They asked my friend to leave the room. Then, they asked the little girl if her father ever touched her inappropriately and if there were guns in the house. The dad is a tall, fit, handsome guy who's very well spoken and seems to be a great father and family man. This really trips me out, that doctors would be asking such questions, let alone asking the parent to leave the room. Has anybody else experienced something similar? Is this normal?
Previous comments...
Don't parents have the right to refuse access to their children. Who's to say the Doctor isn't behaving inappropriately... like asking children to spy on their parents? Of course tyranny and fascism could never rise up here.
Here's how we answer them:
My child is here to be treated for [insert illness here]. If you are unwilling to perform this service, I will take them and my business elsewhere. Your responsibility according to the Hypocratic Oath is to treat your patients and that priority comes before anything else.
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Now, them asking the parent to leave the room, eh... but, how else are they going to get a straight answer out of the kid if their dad's beating or molesting them? OR, if some random babysitter or friend at school or anyone.
The problem with this is the mentality that one is guilty until proven innocent and that the State gets to decide who is innocent. That smacks of authoritarianism.
The doctor though, eh... now he can't force it, but he could ask it given the opportunity
What ever gave you the idea you still lived in a "free country"?
Strange times, indeed....