In the `you couldn't make this stuff up` department...

The notion that somewhere, out there, medical students are allowed to pick and choose what they learn based on their religion blows my mind.

The BMA said it had received reports of Muslim students who did not want to learn anything about alcohol or the effects of overconsumption. "They are so opposed to the consumption of it they don't want to learn anything about it," said a spokesman.

I hope doctors are opposed to heart attacks too, but I still hope they know a few things about them. The same goes with other drug use - A doctor shouldn't have to approve of cocaine use to know how to treat an overdose. If a doctor fails to save a patient, they deprive that patient the ability to make the same moral judgement they have. It's impossible to give up drinking if you're dead.

A small number of Muslim medical students have even refused to treat patients of the opposite sex. One male student was prepared to fail his final exams rather than carry out a basic examination of a female patient.

... I'm glad he was prepared to fail. It's my hope that he did, in fact, fail.

Luckily, one commenter from Malaysia (a predominantly Muslim country) says that's not the norm in their neck of the woods. Still, their mention of sexual segregation of examination causes me a moment of concern. But otherwise, why does US and the UK play host to so much harder line individuals? It's very curious.