Dogma and inquisition in medicine. Breast cancer as a case study.

Abstract

This case study demonstrates the similarity between the development of dogma and the persecution of deviants during the Spanish Inquisition and that in medicine using breast cancer as an example. Regarding breast cancer, the dogma of therapy became separate from the underlying hypothesis and, like the religious dogma enforced by the Inquisition, it required inflexible adherence. Apostates were publicly chastened. This serves to inhibit debate and the exploration of alternative hypotheses, both of which are essential for the advancement of scientific knowledge. Adherance to dogma is antithetical to the conditional and approximate nature of truth in science.