His "stupid decision" shows a complete lack of judgement. I would never trust anyone with my life if they are capable of doing something as absurd as this.

I would, especially if I was on a waiting list. A punishment that does not remove him from his job would benefit everyone in this case.

People who are specialists in one thing might make terrible judgements in other things. Your excellent judgement in designing software doesn't make you an excellent driver.

When my bad judgment as a driver impacts my decisions as a programmer too, I don't expect that to slide.

If his ego/vanity changes the actions that he takes when performing surgery, that sounds like a problem to me.

He is not just a mechanic operating on inanimate objects, his "handiwork" was the insides of a person. Letting vanity get to your head and signing your initials inside of them is a gross violation of the autonomy of that person -- they never consented to such a thing.

The guy should lose his authorization for this.

It is part of a bad culture among medical doctors, where they both torture themselves and apparently others as well. The profession as a whole should really wake up or they will face a similar reaction as taxi drivers did with the introduction of Uber and Lyft. Nobody want’s to be forced to be a customer in businesses that supersede customer trust for ego.

Except this isn't how we make decisions in our society. What if he hits a kid with his car, should we let him off the hook there too because 'he is needed by society'

Although, this does happen[1]:

> Oxford student given suspended sentence for stabbing boyfriend

> Judge had reportedly earlier told Lavinia Woodward a prison term could damage her prospects of becoming a heart surgeon

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/sep/25/oxford-student-l...

You're comparing a victimless "crime" with injuring someone. That doesn't make any sense.

If it's important to the analogy then lets say we caught him driving super drunk but he hadn't hurt anyone yet. Should we let him off the hook?

That's a poor analogy, because people driving super drunk have the potential to cause very great harm.

If we're sticking to car analogies he wrote his name in the dirt on the back of a truck, but the dirt was abrasive and so he also scratched his initials into the paint.

So he didn't increase the risk to the patient in any way, however small?

That is, a patient who gets signed upon and one who doesn't following the exact same procedure for the rest are at an identical risk?

You think branding people is a victimless crime?

If he wants to leave handiwork he should be an artist or something. Don't be a surgeon.

Apparently there are enough surgeons that this guy has plenty of time for extracurricular activities inside an open incision.