Informed consent and the (Alien) Medical language
This paper was my keynote speech for the 2017 Conference of The Health Care Access for Linguistic Minorities ( HCALM ) Network (McGill University,) Montreal, QC, Sep. 28-30, 2017. Marc Zaffran, MD ("Martin WInckler") * Stranger in a strange land Imagine you’re lost in a foreign country and you stop someone in the street to ask your way. You don’t speak the local language and the person you hailed doesn’t speak yours. What could happen ? They might not stop, because they won’t be bothered. They might turn away because they are frightened : you are an alien, after all. You might be trying to take advantage of them. They might look at you with blank eyes because they don’t understand what you’re saying and both of you will look foolish and embarrassed. In the best case scenario, they might understand exactly what your problem is, because you’re showing them a map while trying to say a place’s name that is totally impossible for you to pronounce cor