Should Only Medical And Scientific Persons Be Referred To As Doctors

[barney15c]

Jill Biden has been criticized for using her Doctorate title, which she earned in the field of education. Some have said that this should only be applied to those in the Medical and Scientific professions. The BBC's own style guide uses the title Dr to refer to doctors of medicine, scientific doctors and church ministers who hold doctorates, when relevant. What is the history of doctorates in other disciplines? Do you agree that those who have a Doctorate in say Education, Economics, Theology etc should call themselves Dr. I have no personal opinion either way.

[Khandro]

woofgang, 'cos there is absolutely no comparison between the breadth of study & effort required to become a Doctor of Medicine & gaining a doctorate in other academic subjects, Oxford used to hand them out like sweeties; until recent times you could simply buy one from them £10.

[Peter Pedant]

AB has a lot of Doctors of being steamed up

Germany they are not exclusive I am told - Herr Professor Doctor ....

[Peter Pedant]

Oh can I irritate everyone by saying Sqad is not a doctor if he has ( wh he hasnt innit) FRCS
because the fellows go back to Mr

but other fellows of other colleges still remain as doctors FRCP FRCA

AND - obstetricians ( long word - they deliver babies when er midives dont) were MRCOG and were Mr - ( surgeon accoucheur) and then a subgroup said - "we dont go near heaving ....." we only do perinatal medicine - so we want to be doctor again

there you are - that clarifies it

[Peter Pedant]

damn it apolz Sqad
FRCS which sqad HAS innit? - I thought you were a fellow in ENT
apolz - big no no telling a doctor he doesnt have a degree in gomboology when he does
apols again

[Peter Pedant]

Ph D you have to write and defend a thesis
which is always a big deal

and the ctee turn it down - or make you rewrite a chapter ( which means a complete re write) or do a bit more

Ph Ds in gomboolology know their stuff even if it IS the study of gomboola

[ichkeria]

It would be odd to address someone merely as "doctor" if they weren't in a surgery
But that doesn't seem to be the objection here, or generally.

[emmie]

Mr Em worked long and hard and not at Oxford for his Phd. I looked at his thesis on chemistry, and was amazed at the complexity of it

[ichkeria]

Just ignore them emmie.

[pastafreak]

Hmmm...the ex Mr pasta, and lil pasta, each spent many years getting their PhD.
While lil pasta has chosen to stay out of academia, Mr pasta was attached to both a university, and to a very well known children's hospital for a number of years. His expertise was extremely specialised with the published papers to go with it. He was not a medic. Neither uses their title outside of professional circles.

[ichkeria]

Which is fine

But it seems equally odd to complain when people DO use them.

[Bazile]

Why are Consultants who wield the knife , not referred to as Drs ?

[ichkeria]

See the relevant paragraphs here

https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/patient-care/surgical-staff-and-regulation/qualifications-of-a-surgeon/

[Sqad]

PP just to go back as to why in England (but not Scotland) surgeons are referred to as Mr and not Dr.
It was thought that Guilds should be set up and in them only professions or trades could pass themselves off as Dr's if they had passed a qualifying examination as Physicians had done BUT surgeons did an apprenticeship and were appointed to a hospital by recommendation. An embyro surgeon would approach an established surgeon and pay him an annual fee to "watch and learn" and then when the teacher felt that his pupil was right and ready, the apprentice was recommended to a hospital.
So where do we put our surgeons
As Barbers would blood let as a side line, it was felt that it was the right place for our surgeons and so the Barber's and Surgeons Guild was formed, and the surgeons remained Mr.
100 or so years later the surgeons said "enough of this barber lark" broke away and formed The Royal College of Surgeons and remained Mr to this very day.

[Sqad]

I haven't been called Dr for 50 yrs and it hasn't bothered me one iota.

[jim360]

I think Khandro is confusing the PhD, which requires several years of active research and production of original work that advances the field of study, with the MA (Oxon/Cantab), which requires merely having attended Oxbridge and being awarded a BA there a few years previously.

[ummmm]

They should change the name of doctorates. Doctors, imo, are medical. If someone can't treat you medically then they are not a doctor.

I really appreciate and admire people who have achieved so much through hard work. But the ain't doctors.

Give them their own title to acknowledge them but keep the word 'doctor' for medical purposes.

[woofgang]

drmorgans. I have no problem with the title holder not bothering....as with any other title, its their choice. What I do object to is other people telling the title holder what they should or should not do.

[woofgang]

ummmmm....they were doctors before non PhD medical doctors were doctors...why should they give the title up?

[jim360]

Except I'm pretty sure that Doctor as an academic title predates doctor as a profession. The word originally means "expert/authority", from the Latin for "teacher". Later it became also a word for those who heal the sick, who could well be called physicians instead.

So from an historical perspective, as has been stated earlier, PhDs were Doctors before doctors were Doctors.

[Sqad]

Jim.
A subject with romance,half truths and pride which are all good dinner topics of interest.
That's all -;)