Physician Kill Thyself: The Story of Dr. Gwinn E. Puig

Abstract

Humans are self-experimenters from birth. In fact, we cannot prevent ourselves from being so. Our entire life is a string of self-experiments, whether pleasurable or painful, beneficial or disastrous. As children we are fearless and simply don’t appreciate danger. It is the duty of our parents to train us to recognize and avoid the hazardous situations that we invariably seek out. As adults, if we have learned our lessons, we avoid treacherous experiments that may cost us life or limb based on the experience (often tragic) of others and our own reasonable but not infallible judgment. “Not infallible” would be the key words in that sentence.