How would McCoy regard the EMH if they met?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

He would probably argue that a human doctor is superior because it can actually empathize, touch, care for the patient whereas the EMH is only simulating those behaviors.

If I were the EMH, I'd ask McCoy to prove that HE wasn't simulating those very same behaviors.

srsly, the very fact that McCoy could converse with the EMH as he would with a flesh-and-blood human is reason enough to suggest that the two could eventually respect each other as sentient beings AND professional physicians. McCoy has never met anyone or anything like the EMH - certainly no computer that he could talk to like one would a human being.

I'm not saying that McCoy and the EMH could necessarily be friends, but they would certainly find some sort of common ground.

 

[The Wormhole]

Didn't one or two VOY episodes imply that McCoy was one of the doctors who went into the EMH's programming, though?

Medical texts written by McCoy are part of the EMH basic programming according to Message in a Bottle.

PARIS: Right. You're the boss. What do we do next?
KIM: I've downloaded the ship's entire medical library and compressed it into a single data file. It's got all the classics, from Gray's Anatomy to Leonard McCoy's Comparative Alien Physiology.

 

[Tim Thomason]

The same way Pulaski regarded Data. Except the EMH would be more abrasive, and although McCoy certainly likes to bicker, they probably wouldn't get along too well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Difference there is, the EMH can fight back. Data never could.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

^ Difference there is, the EMH can fight back. Data never could.

Yeah. The TNG writers obviously wanted to create a Spock/McCoy dynamic with Data and Pulaski, but Data was such an innocent, it came off like kicking a puppy. No wonder the character of Pulaski never took off after that -- I'm sure that interaction got her on the bad side of a lot of fans.

 

[publiusr]

^ Difference there is, the EMH can fight back. Data never could.

I can just hear the bickering...

 

[Spot261]

Yeah. The TNG writers obviously wanted to create a Spock/McCoy dynamic with Data and Pulaski, but Data was such an innocent, it came off like kicking a puppy. No wonder the character of Pulaski never took off after that -- I'm sure that interaction got her on the bad side of a lot of fans.

Data, what happens when a terminator becomes a pacifist...

 

[at Quark's]

Hmmm... I'm now imagining a script where Pulaski takes her bad mood out on Data, only for him to strike back in force, and be revealed as Lore

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Medical texts written by McCoy are part of the EMH basic programming according to Message in a Bottle.

Depending on when McCoy wrote the book and when in McCoy's life they met, the EMH may know things that McCoy has yet to learn, which he might taunt Bones with.

I wonder what the Vulcan section of that text looks like.

Why hasn't any Trek author written THAT book?

 

[Six of Twelve]

"I'm a doctor, not a light bulb".

 

[at Quark's]

Depending on when McCoy wrote the book and when in McCoy's life they met, the EMH may know things that McCoy has yet to learn, which he might taunt Bones with.

I wonder what the Vulcan section of that text looks like.

Why hasn't any Trek author written THAT book?

Would McCoy at age 137 still keep up with medical developments? Would the EMH dare say something like 'Medical science has made a few advances since you wrote that book, we don''t use leeches anymore' (as the EMH mark 2 dared say to him)?

 

[urbandefault]

McCoy would turn off the EMH, after informing it that is not a life form, but a computer program that it is not self-sustaining. If events required reactivating the EMH, McCoy would immediately establish chain of command.

No human in his right mind would subjugate himself to a computer program.

 

[Tracy Trek]

Wasn't there a scene in one of the Shatner-verse novels where a very old McCoy has to interact with an EMH? Or am I recalling something wrong?

 

[Paul Weaver]

McCoy would turn off the EMH, after informing it that is not a life form, but a computer program that it is not self-sustaining. If events required reactivating the EMH, McCoy would immediately establish chain of command.

No human in his right mind would subjugate himself to a computer program.

Redemption part 2 had a plot line along those matters. Clearly the crew of the enterprise and Sutherland aren't in their right minds.

 

[Push The Button]

McCoy would unplug him.

 

[UnknownSample]

McCoy would be mad as hell about The EMH stealing his "I'm a doctor not a--" schtick.

 

[sbk1234]

The same way Pulaski regarded Data. Except the EMH would be more abrasive, and although McCoy certainly likes to bicker, they probably wouldn't get along too well.

I would actually look to how McCoy interacted with Data in Encounter at Farpoint. Although he initially made a comment or two seemingly desparing toward Data as an android, he seemed to speak to Data with genuine respect as a fellow sentient, even offering fatherly advice.
While I think Bones would have some philosophical questions about where the EMH stood in the range of lifeform, I think he'd ultimately give the EMH a chance to prove itself.

Bones has a hard exterior, but inside he's a softie.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Redemption part 2 had a plot line along those matters. Clearly the crew of the enterprise and Sutherland aren't in their right minds.

The problem with the bits on the Sutherland was that LCDR Hobson allowed himself to be fooled by Data's "outburst". Hobson should have known it was fake.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Would McCoy at age 137 still keep up with medical developments?

He doesn't have to be old. Voyager/The Doctor could have gone back in time and met him at any (after that comment about computers taking over sickbay) age.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The problem with the bits on the Sutherland was that LCDR Hobson allowed himself to be fooled by Data's "outburst". Hobson should have known it was fake.

Maybe he did after the fact, but in the heat of the moment, he was a Starfleet officer who was conditioned to shut up and follow orders when his superior barked at him.