Medical Council of India wants doctors to write in capital letters

The Medical Council of India has driven another nail into the coffin of the ancient practice of handwritten communication by suggesting that, henceforth, doctors should write their prescriptions in capital letters.

Of course their intentions are admirable, as mistakes arising out of illegiblywritten names of medicines — as opposed to other kinds of indecipherable documents — can be very dangerous, but the solution will definitely lead to the demise of practically the last bastion of the written word. After all, personal letters, schoolwork, greeting cards, scholarly treatises, literary endeavours and even print journalism have all succumbed to the lure of the keyboard. In fact, poor handwriting will probably come to be regarded as one of the hallmarks of 21stcentury human civilisation.

As block lettering is hardly conducive to the smooth flow of thought from medical mind to prescription paper, it will not be long before the printed word takes over here as well, with technology’s helping hand. Sadly, since legibility as an eligibility criterion for medical admissions and hospital appointments would be hard to institutionalise, it would seem that the skill that arguably numbered among the major factors that eventually distinguished humans from our fellow great apes such as gorillas is doomed to extinction.