[i]"A double mastectomy is major surgery. I am suspicious that a physician would perform the surgeries in good conscience, with no clinical presentation beyond family history.
This is a dangerous precedent."[/i]
And you say I'm arrogant and condescending?
You have no qualifications to call into question the "conscience" of the Doctor, and then in "know it all fashion" further elaborate that this is a "dangerous precedent"...once again, with NO qualification to do so.
How arrogant is it of you to assume you know what is in this particular patient's best interest? Or, to conclude that since you, the almighty arbiter of common sense, do not agree with this course of care, that the Doctor is not acting in "good conscience"?
As far as my objectivity, no where in any of my posts did I state that I was in agreement with her decision...just that it bothered me that some of you for some very odd reason, felt compelled to call into question the motives and logical analysis of both the patient and her Doctors after she made a very difficult and intensely personal decision. As far as responding to your accusation that I am not "objective" as a Physician based on my financial remuneration, well I'm not going to stoop to your level. After spending 22 years in the US Navy as opposed to private practice, for someone to question my financial motives in the practice of medicine is laughable.
And BTW, to say that the UK's medical facilities and equipment is "archaic" is total and utter nonsense. It may not be American standard, but then again, nothing else in the world is.
Simply for the sake of discussion--let's say your genetic markers indicate you have 90% chance of developing penis cancer with the same mortality rate as breast cancer. What would you do?