An abusive doctor, abusive teachers: why evil is more surprising in certain trades

A few weeks ago, an adult, father of eight children, was arrested in the Madrid town of Colmenar Viejo for allegedly mistreating his eight children and exercising gender violence against his wife, who was also arrested. The particulars of the case and the description made by the Civil Guard of the state of the house, a single-family chalet in a wealthy residential area, where the family lived, with overcrowded and malnourished children in terrible hygiene conditions already guaranteed to the case a remarkable informative treatment. But there was one more detail, a detail that all the headlines about the case highlighted, including the one in this newspaper: the main defendant was a doctor. Would the profession have stood out in the headline if he had been a wine salesman? Bus driver? Human Resources director? Firefighter? Professor? Journalist? There are surely some yeses, some noes, and some maybes in between these questions.

The case has coincided in time with other news that have also generated astonishment, although differently: the investigations into the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Santos, accused of multiple sexual abuse by his students, of the professor Vicenç Navarro, away from the University Pompeu Fabra for abuse of power and the multiple voices that point to UB archaeologist and National Humanities Award winner Margarita Díaz-Andreu for bullying and mistreatment in the workplace. In all these cases, what was surprising was that respected researchers, committed to the ideological renewal of progressive thought in the cases of Navarro and De Santos, and to feminism in the case of Díaz-Andreu, who headed an association of women archaeologists, succumbed to at least immoral behaviors. It is as if some professions were expected, almost pre-rationally, to have exemplary conduct that obviously does not always exist.

The data is consistent with the different surveys that are carried out in different fields on the most valued professions, which are usually headed by doctors and university professors. The consultancy Ipsos prepares every year a ranking of the unions in which the most trust is placed, the Global Trustworthiness Index, and the results do not usually move much. It is always led by doctors, with 59% confidence, followed by scientists, with 57%, and in third place are professors, with 52%. In the lower areas of the ranking, those in whom he does not trust, are bankers, journalists, advertising executives and, always closing, politicians. Another consultancy, EQS, adds another nuance to its study, also annual. Ask participants what professions they consider to be the most ethical. Once again, the doctors lead, followed by scientists and professors.

In Spain, the most recent data collected by the CIS in its surveys is from 2017 and yields similar results. Until 2013, the state body did make a specific consultation on the most valued professions. The doctor’s stood out, with a great difference over the second, precisely the university professors. The CIS survey distinguished between “most valued” and those that would be recommended to a child or friend to exercise, and there differences emerged. Primary school teachers and nurses, for example, are highly valued, but only between 3 and 6% of those surveyed would recommend their children to practice them. With journalists, who close all the rankings, there is a coincidence that they are undervalued and only 1.2% of those surveyed would like to have one in the family.

In the explanation of these responses, issues of status and salary are mixed – all the indices are headed by well-paid professions, but not exorbitantly paid. Bankers, for example, are always among the least appreciated – with other sociologically more complex variants. “There are professions from which a moral integrity linked to excellence is expected, it is believed that they are publicly committed to the moral values ​​they say they defend,” says Norbert Bilbeny, professor of Ethics at the University of Barcelona (and contributor to this newspaper). . Bilbeny traces a brief historical journey: “In Ancient Greece, it was the military, the strategists and the philosophers who embodied that ideal. In the Middle Ages, moral excellence was attributed to monarchs, the nobility and the upper hierarchy of the clergy and also for centuries there was an admiration for values ​​related to warriors, such as bravery and loyalty. That changes with the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, which coincides with the beginnings of the press. That is where political leaders and writers gain importance. Victor Hugo, Zola and Dickens were not just authors, they were representatives of the moral ideals of Humanity”.

Today, he says, everything is more confusing and also the rankings move fast. “Clearly, businessmen, bankers and financiers are down, and engineers, airplane pilots, firefighters, elite athletes and artists remain, not so much because of their moral values ​​but because of specific qualities of their trade.” The pandemic, in addition, and the data from the Ipsos and EQS surveys agree on this, has strengthened the good reputation of health professionals, especially in countries with robust public systems (in Canada they obtain the highest score) and has lowered that of political managers.

“It is possible that there is some classism in this, as there is in all the views around the professions, but the reason why these cases surprise us more is because we believe that there are trades to which we demand a special responsibility for the type of function they have”, points out the philosopher Pau Luque, co-author of the book Hypochondría moral (Anagrama) together with Natalia Carrero. “With them, we have the expectation that they fulfill that responsibility and not abuse. They have a public function, as do undervalued professions, such as journalists and politicians”. Instead, he says, no one would expect a cook to display irreproachable conduct. “That’s not to say that we like it when they do it wrong, but we don’t have that expectation.” And he excludes artists from liability. “It’s controversial, but we shouldn’t expect artists to have that special responsibility, the very reason why we like art has to do with being irresponsible.”

Both Bilbeny and Luque are familiar with the university environment and are not at all surprised when cases of evidence of abuse of power arise in academic environments, as could have happened with Navarro, Santos and Díaz-Andreu, albeit with different nuances in the cases. The question of gender also intervenes. “From educators, those of us who are in charge of transmitting knowledge, we can expect moral values ​​adjusted to what is preached, but this is often not the case. At the University, especially in the fields of science, there is fierce competition and there are researchers who behave like feudal lords with their teams and with the students” points out Bilbeny.

The professions that have to do with caring, and more specifically doctors, have their own history with moral standards. According to medical ethicist Daniel Sokol, it was not until the early 20th century, when medicine was fully integrated into the sciences in Europe (and was no longer understood as a profession linked to ancestral practices) and the profession became more inaccessible in terms of studies and degrees that “doctors began to think better and better of themselves,” Sokol wrote a few months ago in The Journal of Medical Ethics. In Britain, says Sokol, “doctors began to act like gentlemen, joining prestigious clubs and becoming pillars of society.”

Some authors went so far as to argue that once medical professionals began to think of themselves as being several notches above average reputationally, their ability to heal improved. In 1958, Sokol explains in the same article, a British surgeon and secretary of the medical college wrote: “doctors should at all times conduct themselves in such a way that respect for their patients is justified. That trust and respect will decline if any questionable conduct occurs outside of the professional sphere.” In other words, by the middle of the 20th century the idea of ​​the doctor as a model citizen was already well established.

Although it may seem outdated or outdated, that vision still lives on in a certain way. In the case of the doctor from Colmenar Viejo, who would still practice at the Gregorio Marañón in Madrid, various articles and television reports have reproduced the idea, also emphasizing that he was a religious man (in this regard, the Efe news agency and Maldito Bulo issued notes denying that the doctor was of the Muslim religion, as had been published) and that he was respected within the profession. The quasi-literary concept of “double life” was used in several of those articles and of “compensatory facade”, a criminology concept that refers to citizens who strive to maintain an appearance of social acceptability in public to hide their behaviors. criminals in private.

A segment on the Antena 3 program Espejo Público that went viral exposed, in just a few minutes, almost all the class and even geographic biases that apply to events like this. “The most surprising thing is that the father, the alleged abuser, is a doctor,” said one of the presenters, Diego Revuelta. “Indeed, and the father was the one who signed the certificates,” confirmed the reporter. And one of the neighbors interviewed added: “being a doctor, it is even more complicated for you, he makes you wonder whose hands we are in”. The criminologist Beatriz Vicente, who was at the discussion table, finished off, referring to the co-responsibility of the mother of the eight children: “we are not talking about someone from the Alpujarras of Granada, who can be illiterate and have no way out.” The presenter, Susanna Griso, wondered if precisely the social services had not acted before because it was a doctor, from whom, in principle, no one expects evil.