dontcallmebraxy said:I just finished Lady Midnight, love love love! I have a question about the Clave’s separation from mundane medicine–while it’s terrible of them, I can follow their line of thinking with regards to psychological illnesses, but I’m wondering; since iratzes don’t work on cancer, why would the Clave not consider using something like chemotherapy, and other such treatments for more serious physical diseases?

The Clave would say that Shadowhunters can’t seek intensive medical care for anything without potentially endangering the secrecy of the whole society of Nephilim. Since they maintain that Shadowhunters have very slight physiological differences from ordinary humans, the Clave’s position is that seeking intensive medical attention could blow everyone’s cover. As such, they discourage it. However, individual Shadowhunters have absolutely flouted that rule and sought treatment on their own, without getting caught or arousing suspicion. When they do so, they are wise to do it without the knowledge of the Clave because the punishment is severe if they’re discovered.

As a healer and a nurse, warlock Catarina Loss is a great resource for Shadowhunters and Downworlders who are seeking (or considering seeking) medical help at mundane hospitals. She’s helped many people from the Shadow World navigate the healthcare system, which can be as draconian as anything devised by the Clave. She also hides any unorthodox tests results as she did for Jocelyn in TMI (Jocelyn, not being a Shadowhunter any more, wasn’t punished by the Clave for her stay in the hospital.)

It is true that iratzes cannot cure cancer, but they also cannot cure a sufficiently bad stab wound (Hodge.) Fortunately they are not the limit of the Silent Brother’s medicine (in fact, the Silent Brothers do not really use runes much. Their medicine is very different. We have seen only a little of it, in the form of potions, etc; warlocks, too, have their own healing magic.) The magic of the Shadowhunters in terms of healing cancer is about the same as mundane medicine’s — sometimes it can be healed. Sometimes it can’t. I think the Shadowhunters see no real point abandoning their own medical system for another medical system that has no greater chance of helping them.