altruism=Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.
selflessness=Having, exhibiting, or motivated by no concern for oneself; unselfish
benevolent=Characterized by or suggestive of doing good.
?Volunteers need both selfish and selfless motives to sustain their interest? (Natalie de Combray).
the primary goals of medicine: (according to some medical ethics book somewhere)
benificence
do no harm
justice
did i miss one?
how to be successful in life: "you dont have to be great to be happy. you just have to be great at being happy."- me
These quotes are a little nonsensical, but anyways- the point is that selflessness is not the same as being benevolent. you do something benevolent (if you believe the practice of medicine is something good)or "altruistic" ( I quote this because I think people in the medical field often use this word incorrectly) because it makes you feel good- for whatever reason- it is an egosyntonic (sp) type of behavior.
true selflessness is not a human behavior- try to find an example that proves this wrong.
sacrifice is pointless- if you are sacrificing something you care about for something you care about less- then you are making the wrong decision.
you can make some argument about immediate vs. delayed satisfaction- but realistically the balance you are all talking about is one on a grander scale. are you going to quit medical school to go on one date? no. would you quit medical school if you had to be alone forever? maybe. you get the point though-it is idiotic to think that you have a right to expect sacrifice from another person (since that would imply selfless behavior)
- unless they are not in tune with their own philopsophies on life (and if so- that sucks for them).
does it matter what you do with your life? is doing something for yourself inherently better or worse than doing something for another person? if so, why?
assigning a value judgement on another person's behavior (in this example assuming they aren't good if they don't sacrifice) is to impose one's own morality upon another person. this is pretty unamerican behavior (i won't make any political assertions other than that).
assuming that being a pediatrician in an innercity is better, or more in line with the morals of modern medicine, than being a plastic surgeon in beverly is to miss the point of medicine.
we are here to provide a service and help people. the motive is inconsequential as long as the job is done.
this is a little off topic (not like this whole post-isn't) but compassion is a word that gets thrown around a lot- i alluded to the fact that it seems strange to me that there is some assumption that doing something for another person is seen as somehow better than doing something for oneself, but there seems to be this sort of PCism about compassion. what is the value of compassion? emoting for someone is a gratifying experience. just like some people feel good after a good cry- or when you feel sad you might listen to a sad song that makes you feel worse- or allows you to relate to someone. it is a very human behavior- but one wrapped in self-indulgence. what are you doing when you feel compassion for someone? you relate to them, or relate their situation to one you have been in, one someone you care about has or could be in, or some other extension of this idea. you feel bed for them because you feel sorry for humanity and yourself and your mortality. you are afraid and feel sadness because of this sudden realization of your own or another's mortality- and YOUR subsequent loss of them. what is more selfpreserving/selfish than fearing mortality? i am not saying there is anything wrong with it- I just think it is misguided to place so much importance on having compassion in our field (i suspect at times this percieved compassion is chosen over competence). i don't think that compassion makes you do a better job than someone who follows the basic goals of medicine (as above). so why insist upon it? maybe it makes patients feel better? maybe that changes outcomes? seems like a pretty spurious argument without some proof. that is why i get confused when people on this board, and elsewhere, say that they think compassion is the primary and most important virtue of a physician.
we are medical students and physicians for our own reasons- and no one reason is better than another- simply because the only judgement of value can come from comparison to our own intrinsic morality.
my own belief is that work is good if done for the sake of work- not for benifecence, personal gain, or community gain- it is the way of the world- we work because we can.
now that's rambling dammit!
