Comments | sga_santa: Fic: Do No Harm (2/2)

sgasesa_admin in sga_santa

Fic: Do No Harm (2/2)

Dec 22, 2006 17:02

Title: Do No Harm, 2/2
filenotch
Written For: dr_dredd, who asked for "Carson. Lots and lots of him.... Nothing sappy, please. :-)" You, got it. There is nothing sappy here.
Rating: PG-13 for explicit biomedicine, and difficult ethical situations.

Click for Part 1

( Do No Harm, 2/2 )

genre: general

Comments 28

burntcopper December 22 2006, 20:15:39 UTC

>>>WOW> That's one serious piece of fic. Especially the genetics and the creeping 'excuse me, what about what you did on Hoff?' followed by Michael. and dammit, now I want to see LeBlanc again.

<-- works with way too many biomedical authors to not start rolling her eyes at leBlanc's arrogance.

burntcopper December 23 2006, 03:54:16 UTC

I find arrogance on both sides, the MD and the PhD. I should ammend the note to say that I had to find a way to believe it myself.

I'm glad you liked LeBlanc. I came in on this as a pinch hitter, and decided to be self-indulgent on both the OC and the subject matter.

heartnut December 23 2006, 03:53:26 UTC

I wasn't able to get some of it, but that's an encouraging detail that makes me want to read your fic over again. EXCELLENT work. Wow. *in awe*

heartnut December 23 2006, 04:54:29 UTC

The praise is much appreciated.

heartnut December 23 2006, 20:29:51 UTC

I should ammend that comment to say that I expected very few people to even read it beyond dr_dredd, the recipient, given that it's Carson and gen. To have it read and have you like it is immensely gratifying.

heartnut December 23 2006, 22:14:17 UTC

I found this fic through sga_newsletter the other day. I'm so glad I did, too. :)

dr_dredd December 23 2006, 20:00:31 UTC

In a way, LeBlanc is very much like Rodney. Both of them decry the "getting your hands dirty" part of medicine. I bet that if you really dug deeply into Rodney's motivation, he also wouldn't want the responsibility of healing. That would mean having to deal with people, with all of their foibles and idiosyncrases.

I think the physicist doth protest too much when he freaked out about the ATA gene therapy. Carson did indeed try to warn him, and he responded by making fun of medicine.

Very interesting fic. Thanks again for my present. :-) (And I think I've figured out who you are...)

dr_dredd December 23 2006, 20:27:53 UTC

It's a good thing you didn't want fluff, because I can't do fluff. And I think you're right about Rodney. For all that he saves them on a regular basis, very rarely is it personal. He fixes a machine, invents something, applies theory and tech in new ways, but it's not about the people.

As for the protests, Rodney seems like the kind of person to forget he was warned, but after what happened to the converted Wraith, he'd think differently about it than he did then.

If you want to check to see if you're right, drop an email to my lj name on hotmail. We've rarely interacted, afaicr, so I'll be interested if you pegged me.

nonniemous December 24 2006, 14:27:34 UTC

As a die-hard Carson fan, I'm not sure what to say to this fic. It's absolutely wonderful to see a well-written, *science* fiction piece with Carson as a central character. He's more popular in gen circles than in slash, from what I've seen, but few people have the science background to write his character well ( ... )

nonniemous December 25 2006, 00:10:49 UTC

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback. I've never written Carson before, nor do I read much gen, so it's no surprise I landed on a common trope. And yes, I do have the background, and in addition know more about clinical research than most biomedical scientists. I've been around both sides enough to have the opinion that the percentage of MDs who are in fact good bench scientists is relatively low (and lower than some of the MDs think it is), and LeBlanc would likely have seen the kinds of things I have that led to the opinion. More importantly, as a medical officer with duties to patients, Carson simply doesn't have the time to do the amount of bench work required. Carson's not an idiot, but he'd have to sleep less than Rodney to get it all done, even with the longer day on Atlantis. At minimum, he'd have technicians ( ... )

dr_dredd December 25 2006, 05:02:59 UTC

Most of the MD's I know who are good bench scientists also have Ph.D.'s. You're right in that most clinical docs don't have enough time to do it justice. (And Lord knows I personally was reduced to tears on several occasions because of bench research I had to do to graduate from college. I much prefer epidemiology.)

I like the idea of using the scientific process to explore the ethical process. I hadn't picked up on that during the first reading.

nonniemous December 30 2006, 04:13:21 UTC

Commentary on a DVD is often my favorite part so it's not more than I wanted. It's always interesting to see where other authors are coming from in their fics ( ... )

sgafan33 December 27 2006, 05:52:56 UTC

Excellent story! This is an issue I wish the show would address more. I'm afraid the show writers are more "hard science" than "squishy science" people. I think with the all the genetic manipulation we've seen on the show, there would be more discussion of the medical ethics of it all ( ... )

sgafan33 December 27 2006, 13:57:39 UTC

Good points about Carson, and by Sateda, he and Rodney are wrestling for the gun to go help Ronon. He's developed more physical courage over the course of the show.

In defense (or indictment) of the writers, their physics isn't any better than their biomedicine.