Roger Harms, M.D., Mayo Clinic specialist in obstetrics-gynecology

There's always a cohort of people within the population who adopt positions with a great deal of enthusiasm and vigor and very strong adherence. And they often have these feelings, these strong feelings because of their own experience. If there's one thing we've learned in medicine, it's that it's not possible to extrapolate the experience of one patient to the experience of another. The only thing you really can do in a counseling situation for patients is to tell them that amongst the thousands of people who've had this kind of care, this many had a good outcome, and this many did not. It's not something that is emotional or can be informed by a personal story, as much as it needs to be carefully weighed in as close to a scientific fashion as we can, so that your decision isn't made based on emotion. So almost no matter what, anyone who is an enthusiast in one particular position on a controversy in medicine probably needs to have their message tempered by the truth, which often lies somewhere between the two.

VIDEO HELP

If the video does not play, you may need to download and install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player. For additional troubleshooting tips, browse the Multimedia FAQ.