Doctor Medico, My Foot!

General GTG Sentinel Comics Lore
#1

Doctor Medico M.D. is a doctor. Thus, he must have taken the Hippocratic Oath, which contains the famous "primum non nocere," or "First do no harm."

And yet, both Southwest Sentinels Doctor Medico and Void Guard Doctor Medico have Cards that deal Damage! This is unacceptable.

Now, I honestly admit that I have no more knowlegde of the Oath than what I read in the above-linked Wikipedia article, so I may not fully understand any intricacies related to it.

And I suppose that there are valid excuses, both mechanical and lore-wise, for why he would do this, such as. . .

  • In the Southwest Sentinels Deck, it would take up too much space on the Cards to add "other than Doctor Medico" to all the Cards that say "One of your heroes deals . . . damage."
  • If Void Guard Doctor Medico is the only Hero left standing, there still needs to be a way for the Heroes to win.
  • Doctor Medico's OblivAeon/Oblivion Shard currupts him into breaking the Oath in his Void Guard form.

Bu still, I am disapointed in Doctor Hernandez.

#2

Not all medical procedures are wihtout harm and I would argue not all damage in SotM is necessary physically harming someone.  It could be foiling plans by restraining someone or blocking access to himself while he is giving medical attention to a person. Malpractice Medico is clearly out to hurt people but that's due to Gloomweaver's essence he absorbed into his Void Shard.  

#3

The Hippocratic Oath is mainly about medical ethics, i.e. doing best practices for your patients. It doesn't necessarily mean being opposed to self-defense.

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#4

Thanks Jeysie. After some brief Googling, I found various sources agreeing with you. I guess that's resolved. : )

#5

I mean, that's why his Hippocratic Oath card makes him heal instead of deal damage whenever he would deal damage. You don't need "except Medico" on a bunch of cards because you can play his Oath to make him redirect damage into healing.

Anyway, a big part of the ethical difficulty in medical care revolves around the absolute necessity of harming a patient in hopes that it will eventually do them good.  You have to cut apart healthy tissue to reach a problem in surgery. You may have to break bones to reach a failing organ, poison a patient to inhibit the cancer that's killing them, and the very concept of 'side effects' is about medicines that still hurt you in some way (just less than the thing you're trying to deal with at the moment). It's always a balance between doing immediate harm and the greater good. Sometimes that doesn't go well and the surgery itself takes a life during what ought to be a routine procedure. It's not a simple, straightforwad choice between A and B.

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#6

This discussion has me thinking of a particular episode of The Good Place. ;)

#7

[quote="Trajector"] This discussion has me thinking of a particular episode of The Good Place. ;) [/quote]

Messy stuff, ethics... ;-)