The most dangerous phrase in the language is, “we’ve always done it this way.”
“Come on, let’s mix it up!” The heart surgeon says.
“B-but we’ve always done it this way!” The other replies, “this is how you replace a heart valve.”
“That’s the most dangerous phrase in the human language!” The first surgeon replies haughtily as he inputs a fruit loop into the patient’s heart. “This will be his valve. He will be a fruit loop in a world of Cheerios.”
(taken from this post on the experiments of Harry Harlow)
This is serious business, because this is a large part of how sexism, racism, homophobia, rape culture, ethnocentrism, etc. continue to happen.
The reason we do heart surgeries the way we do is not “because that’s what we’ve always done.” It’s because that’s how year of scientific research says will give the best results. One of the best uses of the scientific method is to test common practice, and either eliminate it or give it legitimacy. Don’t do things because “that’s what we’ve always done,” do them because that is what evidence and research say we should do.
Saying “we’ve always done it this way” justifying maintaining a harmful societal norm is dangerous. We can do better.
I honestly can’t believe someone saw a post about how it’s bad to justify bigotry or other hardships with “that’s the way it is/has always been/etc” and decided to debunk that with an example of heart surgery as if that’s in any way comparable or the point of this post. 🙄
But honestly, even if the post was talking about things like that? If science found a better way to do heart surgery, and after tons of study and research it was undeniably the best way to do it, and surgeons said “Nah, we have always done it our way so we are going to keep doing it our way; who cares what the science says” that would be a problem.
Also, heart surgery is a perfect example of us not doing it the way we’ve always done it.
The first open heart surgery ever performed was in 1893 by the first Black surgeon in the world, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. He repaired a stab wound to the patient’s heart. This was only 125 years ago.
The first heart catheterization was performed in 1929 by Dr. Werner Forssman, when he performed the procedure on himself in the name of research.
The first coronary angiogram was performed in 1953 by Dr. Eduardo Pereira.
The first artificial ventricle was implanted in a patient in 1967 by Dr. Michael DeBakey.
The first human heart transplant was also performed in 1967 by Dr. Chris Barnard.
The first successful pediatric heart transplant was performed in 1984 by Dr. Eric Rose.
This is just a short list of some of the more major advancements in coronary medicine. There are way too many interesting developments to list here, because medical science is constantly improving. Every single one of these developments was a huge risk. Nobody had done it that way before. And every single development has led to thousands more saved lives. Literally millions of people would now be dead if these doctors and their patients had done things “the way we’ve always done it,” if they had not taken risks and pushed the boundaries of medical science.
Fuck doing it the way it’s always been done. Get out there and save the world from “the way we’ve always done it.”
wupacing 