Ambrosia,
life is far more complicated than you see the doctor who is afraid to lose her reputation by being recognized as daughter of uneducated/dirty/uncivilized mother. it is really nothing other than superficial adjustment but deep down some thing else is boiling which other person cannot see. The doctor is trying to protect something implanted in her when she was child by parents, society or her own conviction.
And in reality, to be proud of parents or ignore them for some reason are just tow faces of same coin, though one is socially accepted and another condemned.