nothing is more deadly than finding oneself a victim of a complicitous and incestous relationship between religion, belief (religious or ideological) and medicine (science), particularly where medicine stands as the junior partner in the triad, used only as a steerable executive arm in a diabolical mission sanctified by the senior partners or their 'Gods'.

this case also represents how society itself exerts a corrupting influence on the medical corps--be it falsification of documents, or laboratories or commerce-oriented research, or drug trials. Each of these can come to have all of the elements of a shark infested red ocean inside which luckless doctors find themselves riding or shooting waves and breast-stroking to the tunes coming from heartless scene commanders on the shores.

we saw corrupted practices in nazi germany, reportedly too in various regional conflicts, the tuskegee trials, and some false vaccination programs; all driven by a mix of social cum commercial pressures far removed from the ideals of defensible medical standards.

In some parts of the world where there is an oligocracy (more an oligocrazy) in which the few represent the uncontested payers of the 'Piper', the beleaguered doctor may have no choice but dance to the tune

or .....alternatively dance to the macabre sounds of ostracisation and or poverty that may be risibly considered by some self-inflicted.

punishment should be reserved for doctors who share the ideological fervour of misguided leaders for misdirected medical practices put to the service of evil. Pity and help should be given for those who found themselves fighting in combat colors that they would naturally not don but have done so for lack of support in an unforgiving environment where they constitute a vulnerable minority.

One can only sympathise with the latter whilst we chase out the former, be they in countries like the sudan or veneered in the industries of the metropoles.

Competing interests: None declared