Physicians Must Respect Life
Daily Observer
Simon
Quentin Lapius nibbled tentatively on the
endive. “I know of no dressing that
quite conquers the bitterness of endive,” he said. “Anyway Harry, with respect to your question
so vulgarly stated, ‘Where’s it at with medicine?’ Am I supposed to answer that
between mouthfuls of salad? It’s rather
broad you know. But I think it starts
with a reverence for life. Lord C.P. Snow
returned to that theme recently. I
quote:
‘I
believe that we have to act as if each individual life was significant.’
“You
remember of course that driving force in the life of Schweitzer was ‘reverence
for life.’ All the turmoil of his
feelings during the war and at the start of his self imposed exile were finally crystallized in the phrase reverence for life,
without which no physician can function.”
I
remember reading about Snow’s statements at a recent dedication of the new 188
bed wing of St. Barnabas Hospital for Chronic Diseases in
“Snow
expanded on this theme. He said that:
‘In
many conditions, most of all in those when one is face to face with mortality,
there is no substitute for one good doctor.’
“Snow
went on to say that a doctor with empathy can do more for a patient than
anything medicine can do. Of course
there are those who would argue with this.
But there is no substitute for empathy, sympathy, a small degree of
identification with the feeling of one patient.
Snow felt this couldn’t be taught, and I would agree. But Snow felt that a literary thread should
be introduced to the medical education.”
“How
do you feel about that, Dr. Lapius?” He finished his morsel of salad and poked at a
drop of oil that slithered down his chin.
This gave him time to think.
“I
don’t quite agree. I think that
qualities such as empathy and feeling for fellow man cannot be taught, but
somehow result from personal experience, which included personal loss, the pain
of aging, disease, anxiety. In other
words, experience. Show me a doctor who
has been a patient and I will show you a kind and friendly doctor who will be
concerned with his patient as a person.”
“You
think that is most important?”
“No.” Lapius had become
distracted by a slightly overdone chopped sirloin, and was appraising it
carefully before tasting it.
“What
do you mean no? After
the long speech about empathy.”
“No! First he has got to know what the heck he is
doing. He must be a trained doctor. There is no substitute for that. We can’t turn incompetent nurse-maids loose
on the public. But if after a doctor has
achieved his competence, if he develops some motherly instincts, all the better. He
must rage to protect the health, dignity, and comfort of his patients, but must
also be able to inflict painful procedures if necessary. He must achieve a sense of balance so that
the risks he imposes on his patients balance the risk of no treatment at
all. It’s
judgment my boy. C.P. Snow had to live a
lifetime to come to his value judgments.
Each of us in areas of serious responsibility must reach maturity by the
same painful process. It can be
indicated as a goal, but it can’t be taught.
Pass the rolls please.” He chewed
for a moment, then suddenly blurted out an angry
stream of indecipherable syllables each surrounded by specks of food.
“What
was that you said?” I asked. “I didn’t catch all of it.”
He
dabbed at his chin carefully, then swallowed the bolus
of food. “I said, Harry, that Snow would
like to introduce mere art into the medical curriculum, but there’s scarcely
enough time for the science, to say nothing of literature, music, philosophy
and the like. And now there’s talk of
doing away with the premedical college years, and shortening the medical
curriculum. Phooey.”
“That
wasn’t what you said, when you talking with your mouth full. Come on, Simon. Out with it.”
“I
said the last thing we need in medicine is a Snow job.” He looked sheepish, because he hated to be caught
in a bad pun.