Academic

SHOULD DERMATOLOGISTS POINT OUT SUSPICIOUS MOLES they see on passersby? In the comments, Freeman Hu?

By Glenn Reynolds

SHOULD DERMATOLOGISTS POINT OUT SUSPICIOUS MOLES they see on passersby? In the comments, Freeman Hunt observes:

Yes, it is the right thing to do.

Perhaps if some dermatologist had noticed the bad mole on the back of my father’s head and said something to him, he wouldn’t have melanoma spreading throughout his liver and lungs right now.

Another reader comments:

It was over the course of a few years that I noticed a strangely colored, irregular mole on the back of the neck of a client/associate.

Repeatedly, I almost said something, but every time I just assumed his wife must have noticed it and he had it checked out. So, who was I to bring it up? Within a few years he was dead of melanoma.

I mentioned an iffy mole to a dive guide last month. She looked vaguely irritated and said “it’s been checked dozens of times.” But better safe than sorry — it was huge and odd-looking.

On the other hand, don’t take health advice from Sex and the City.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on June 08, 2010 (boomark / email).