Many things that come natural to us are not justified. Heaven forbid someone has their own hours in mind and a separate life that they want to live.
Strongly disagreed. Hours working on the job are a component of the job as much as the intellectual stimulation, the challenge, the responsibility, and all the other factors involved with a job.
Let's put it this way. If you were forced/expected to work 120 hours a week to be a physician, people would not clamor for the job, nor would they chastise others for avoiding the job for this reason. However, when the hours drop down to say 70 or 80, some people are OK with it. However, others still may not be, and who's to say that you're concept of what is a proper amount of hours is any better than Joe Smoe who thinks that the job shouldn't require more than 40 hours or 30 hours?
You're exactly right, you'll be doing this career for 40+ hours. If you're going to be at the end of this feeling overworked and like you're missing out on life, you're going to feel like you're in prison. Sure, maybe you should consider another career. But there's no guarantee you'll like some other job any more than medicine. We are neither obligated nor qualified to make statements about what people should decide is most important for their life choices and I find this constant attempt here to force ideologies and priorities on each other an overstepping of one's bounds.
Again, let people live their life the way they want and according to their principles. For some people, it's just a job. Not saying it's my view, but just because it isn't mine doesn't mean it can't be right for someone else.
The other thing you should consider is that most specialties can find ways to control their hours, with varying impact on their salaries/earnings. Sure, an orthopaedic surgeon may work from 5 am to 6 pm everyday and make $600,000, but that same person can take a job elsewhere, with a different group (or even with the same one), work less and simply make less. Don't underestimate money as the driving force for many physicians--regardless of specialty--to work long hours. I mean think about it, after working all day every day through medical school only to take out ridiculous amounts of loans and living off of no money, working 65 hours a week to pull in good money seems pretty good. I'll admit I'm no saint, and I'm not as naive as some medical students (perhaps because I'm an economist as well) when it comes to using salary and hours as part of the consideration when choosing a specialty, but you can't pick a specialty you hate just because of the salary and hours. It should only be a part of the consideration. Every specialty can find ways to make money or sacrifice some of it to work less, but you can't change what you're doing as easily.