I am almost old enough.....(scary!)

We used to put our Doctors up on pedestals and probably respected their opinions too much. So much that it might have had the effect of latency. If the Doc knew his opinion was weighted he would tell you your odds were better than they were. That has a good effect in that a patient might be more prone to healing, the latency being the family was not prepared for death or disability. Then they started giving honest opinions, but the results were not as good as optimistic words. For a while it seemed like the medical community was moving towards asking a patient "When do you think you might be able to walk again? Are you healed? Do you feel better?" Now the government gets more involved and people will die. Look at the VA. Look at anytime the bureaucracy gets involved in medicine. This is scary to me. You?