Opinionated vs Judgmental

this is a conversation that happened during our HIV lecture...
Lecturer: Do you think that the mortality of HIV patients is too high or too low?
Student: too low. i would want more HIV patients to die cos they deserve to die and this way, they won't transmit the infection to more ppl.
Lecturer: so you think they deserve to die?
Student: yup.
Lecturer: i think you need some counselling.
(some paraphrasing done cos i forgot the exact words exchanged already)

Doctors and medical students are after all human beings and we have our negative opinions about ppl and their behaviours. like the student who thinks that HIV patients deserve to die for their promiscuous acts, I also have some ppl i can't stand: cigarette smokers! i think they are a selfish and ill-disciplined bunch of ppl whose brains have been smothered and engulfed in poisonous smoke. in my opinion, they should all be locked up in jails cos suicides and murders are illegal right? they not only kill themselves, they are murdering ppl around them too!!

someone (prob a smoker himself!) once wrote to the newspaper forum saying that if we discriminate against smokers and not offer them good medical care, shouldn't we also ostracise ppl who don't exercise and eat unhealthily? i think the writer's got it all wrong! when someone stops exercising and drink spoonfuls of oil everyday, is anyone else besides him harmed by it? but when someone smokes, ppl around him inhale unfiltered passive smoke and may even have a higher risk of certain diseases compared to him!

my frens all know that i hold my nose with my fingers when i walk past smokers, wave my hands in big fashion and crinch up my face to express my disgust and sometimes fake a cough to irritate them cos they're irritating me! haha! (yeah yeah... i know one day i'm gonna be abducted and tortured by some gang leader for doing tt.)

so what should i do when one day, a patient reeking of cigarette odour walks into my clinic? here comes the topic: to exhibit professionalism, we are allowed to have our negative opinions but we're not allowed to be judgmental and certainly not allowed to withhold our care and treatment. easier said than done huh?

ideally, i would hafta still give him my best form of treatment for whatever condition he has, give him my care and concern, advise him encouragingly to quit smoking, hide every single feeling of disgust i have for the stench he has in his breath, smile and wave goodbye. (half the time, holding my breath with negative and judgmental thoughts going through my mind... doctors are one group of very hypocritical ppl huh??)

haaii... such is the role we hafta adapt to! we hafta give every patient we see the benefit of doubt that they are all good ppl and have a problem that needs our help. we save lives. period. we do not choose whose lives are worth saving and whose lives are not.

so another dilemma: what if the patient with a bleeding head just killed someone 20 minutes ago? whether we like it or not, the correct answer is we do our utmost best to save him! whether justice comes along and punishes him is not up to us at all.