"A medical student grows and learns"

This is an interesting blog post about the learning experience of a Harvard medical student with the bariatric surgery group in a medical centre : posted by a hospital blog on Tuesday 26 June 2007 :

The student wrote in his journal:

"Like most people, I think that obesity is a lifestyle issue -- it is a reflection of our society with gluttony of unhealthy food and paucity of exercise. And like most people, I feel uneasy about "fixing" obesity by reducing the size of the stomach to give the "artificial" feeling of safety and/or to curb the caloric intake by shortening the length of the digested food transit. Is this an appropriate and responsible medical approach? Is obesity a condition indicating for surgical procedure? What kind of people would allow, or even demand, to have one's body altered in such unnatural ways to escape from obesity?"

"Having spent almost one year with my patient, I am beginning to realize some answers.... ......................" Read more at Running a Hospital.

The student concluded that candid conversations with the patient have taught him to "relinquish assumptions, to empathize and above all, to never forget to listen to my patients so that I can offer them what they really need."

What is your view on this?