THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

"IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT..." | 2005-01-22

We always hear the phrase, "in your professional judgement," and we think that means we are talking to a person who is trained to look at the facts objectively, cooly, and without taking sides.

That NEVER happens.

The person you are asking to be "a professional judge" in a particular specialty has earned his status as a professional precisely by being part of a very narrow group. You cannot spend four years in pre-medicine, four years in medical school, two years in internship, two to five years in specialization, all among professionals in the same field, and come out of all that without at least a lot of the attitudes of all the people who have trained you, worked with you and, above all, decided that you are the kind of person they want in their profession.