Reprise Of Thread On Health Difficulties Wtih Lds Missionaries

[Scott Lloyd]

I don't think I got a fair chance to respond to some posts on the thread, so I'm opening this new one to do so. I will then lock it in deference to the apparent desires of the moderators (or whoever it was that closed the prior thread).

 

jkwilliams said:

 

I think informing your mission president is sound policy. Saying you need permission to see a doctor is not, IMO. We just disagree.

 

I responded:

 

I think you're imagining up a horrible scenario in which a mission president routinely refuses to approve needed healthcare for missionaries. That doesn't strike me as likely. The Church typically doesn't call idiots as mission presidents.

 

Thinking replied:

 

Or a scenario in which the missionary doesn't think it's an emergency (but it really is), and for whatever reason the attempted communication to receive the permission is not working.

 

To which I now respond:

 

Such a thing (the missionary not thinking it's an emergency though it really is) could happen whether or not there was a policy in place of seeking approval for medical care. At least under the present policy, the missionary is directed to seek counsel and involvement from the mission president (or his representative) and is not left to rely on his own inexperienced and possibly less-than-prudent judgment. .

 

jkwilliams responded to Thinking's post, saying:

 

 

Exactly. There are lots of possibilities for failure that don't involve idiots. I am just not seeing an up side to the policy.

 

To which I now respond:

 

The obvious "upside" is that under the present policy, there is the assurance that the counsel of wise leaders called for that very purpose is involved in the very important decision about whether to seek medical care and from whom to seek it.

 

I see much greater potential for disastrous consequences if missionaries needing medical care were left to fend for themselves in a strange locale far from home where they are unfamiliar with the available options and possible hazards than I do the highly unlikely possibility for problems with the present policy. Frankly, the notion of leaving them on their own in such a situation terrifies me as the father of a missionary son, even as I am reassured by the policy now in place.