> How do you get around requiring everyone to be an expert in all things?
i simply hope for them to make their own choices. If that choice means following a doctor's advice, that's fine. (Admittedly, 9 times out of 10 or more, that's what i'll do - the doctor is the subject-matter expert.)
Anecdote: as a recovered throat cancer patient, if a doctor were to tell me that the cancer is back and i had to undergo Treatment X or die, i'd start getting my affairs in order. In the 17 years since my cancer treatment, the only side-effects i still live with are side-effects of the _treatment_, not the cancer. e.g. i haven't slept a full night of 8 hours uninterrupted in 17 years because of side-effects of the radiation treatments, not the disease, and i'm unwilling to undergo further quality-of-life degradation caused by medical treatments. If it comes down to that, i'd choose my dignity and quality-of-(what remains of my)-life over a longer life suffering yet more side effects.
Granted, not all would make such a choice, but i inherited stubbornness from both of my parents and got a double dose of it genetically, so i don't expect to represent a majority opinion.
"If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values: they're hobbies." -- Jon Stewart