THE GOLDEN GATE OF MEDICINE

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Abstract
During the past 75 yrs. medicine has been greatly influenced by the idea that every disease must have its specific single and sufficient cause. This preoccupation with causation has resulted in virtual mastery of many diseases. It has also had intellectual, social, ethical, economic and educational consequences. The power to prevent diseases involves a new ethical responsibility, a justifiable addition to the costs of living, and the need for changes in medical practice and education. Current procedures for the certification of specialists, though admirable in intent, threaten the freedom of medicine to change and grow, since by a system of examinations they reward candidates for knowing what the examiners know rather than for possessing new knowledge, originality and maturity of experience. Freedom rather than certification is the best guarantee of vitality and survival through variety. Medicine must look to horizons wider than simple causation to find and deserve such freedom.

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