The main point the author wants to stress is that in the medical profession wherein cultural background, beliefs and practices between physicians and patients diverge from each other, the ethical practices applied by physicians must be sensitive to the patients’ cultural beliefs and practices but must not conform with any harmful feature in such beliefs and traditions in order to firmly uphold and protect the safety and well being of the patients.
The author is most concerned about the problems faced by medical practitioners in the United States who encounter potentially harmful practices by immigrants such as female genital mutilation performed by Africans on their baby girls, the traditional Mien ‘cure’ for pain that inflicts burns on the skin of a child, and the ritual of scattering a highly toxic substance mercury around the household to ward off bad spirits.
Although these beliefs and practices are widely accepted in the immigrants’ countries of origin, the author expressly emphasizes her opposition to these practices because of the danger and health hazards posed on patients and people. The author proposes that physicians must be obligated to educate the parents who allow their children to be exposed to potentially harmful and unnecessary pains and sufferings so that they can understand the need to alter their traditional practices.
The author believes that no amount of ‘cultural sensitivity’ can equate with the need to maintain and restore health. She supports and favors respect for cultural diversity but this must be without having to accept any harmful feature embedded in the traditional beliefs and rituals.