Monday, August 23, 2004
The Needs of the Many
Now this is a real ethical dilemma - the Utilitarian view (as championed by Peter Singer - "the Good of the Many outweigh the Good of the One" - anyone remember Star Trek?) vs the Judeo-Christian view that all life is sacred.
I've never had the pleasure of reading Professor Gaita's views on the matter, but I have read Peter Singer and compared him to John Wyatt, a strong proponent of the Judeo-Christian view of medical ethics in the UK, and I will confess that, much to my surprise I was forced to rethink my stand on medical ethics and acknowledge that ethics are painted mostly in different shades of grey, rather than black and white.
For a while.
There's something fundamentally ugly and incongruent to me about the thought of killing people, children, and life in general. Even euthanasia strikes me as seeming a little perverse, although in extreme cases of suffering quite possibly justified.
After some thought around the matter, I eventually concluded that I want to believe in life, rather than death - nevermind what the world wants us to believe, or what my peers want to believe.
Perhaps if people are so keen to make quality of life assessments for other people and then terminate them - and if society is in agreement with this - then we can see the rise of a new breed of technician - a "death technician" if you may. (Wherefore the need to train for five years in med school just to deliver a lethal injection?)
I see no need for these technicians to be members of the medical faculty - in fact I believe it would irretrievably destroy the image of doctors and nurses that (some of) the public has come to cling to in this age of retreating moralities.
It's funny, isn't it, that the public wants their doctors to act on their behalves to save life and alleviate suffering - yet at the same time it wants them to do their bidding and take lives when they deem fit.
Amongst the medical profession there is a strong disinclination to take a stand. I've had consultants ranting on their ward rounds that doctors must never, ever reveal their religious stands, and that we should all wear a standardised doctors hat, to prevent insiduous symbols creeping into the establishment, like turbans and skullcaps. "We are there for the patients."
I've also learnt the hard way that intimating my personal inclinations results in mass condemnation - and so, although it's not very Christian of me to do so, I sit on my faith at work and go about the task of being a medical technician, buffered by the knowledge that at present at least, life IS still (mostly) sacred and that it's my duty to try to help - and that on a case by case basis, sometimes inaction is the more humane of potential courses of action.
But one wonders if, and when the day will come when we are called to kill - and whether there will be any leeway for us to refuse.
I have little doubt that people will skim read these words and either pause to nod in agreement, or condemn the writer as a pretentious git. Whichever way, at least you paused if only for an instant, to think. :)
*****
The Philosopher Prince
Compare and contrast these :
BBC
The Economist
The Age
Cherian George, Singapore Window
to these :
Chua Mui Hoong, Straits Times
Cherian George, Straits Times
It must be because they are foreign devils that they dare to think critically of our perfect leader, and question our future! They cannot understand since they were not born in Singapore! We do not live in fear, we live in Consensus! (where is con-sen...) How dare they insinuate that he is anything less than the warm, gentle, child-hugging baby-loving (get your minds out of the gutter lah!) people-person OUR media has clearly shown us that he is!
These foreign devils do not understand our confucian ethics and have no reverence or respect for authority, and they do not know the meaning of responsible journalism, unlike our own glorius media. Long live the Truth!
*****
One flew over...
Oh yeah. I'd been waiting to write this once the news became public but it completely slipped my feeble mind when the moment came and went, so this is a bit belated, but seems this lucky bastard got even luckier... so... congratulations lucian. :) God bless. Everyone brace yourselves. The baby pictures are about to begin...
I've never had the pleasure of reading Professor Gaita's views on the matter, but I have read Peter Singer and compared him to John Wyatt, a strong proponent of the Judeo-Christian view of medical ethics in the UK, and I will confess that, much to my surprise I was forced to rethink my stand on medical ethics and acknowledge that ethics are painted mostly in different shades of grey, rather than black and white.
For a while.
There's something fundamentally ugly and incongruent to me about the thought of killing people, children, and life in general. Even euthanasia strikes me as seeming a little perverse, although in extreme cases of suffering quite possibly justified.
After some thought around the matter, I eventually concluded that I want to believe in life, rather than death - nevermind what the world wants us to believe, or what my peers want to believe.
Perhaps if people are so keen to make quality of life assessments for other people and then terminate them - and if society is in agreement with this - then we can see the rise of a new breed of technician - a "death technician" if you may. (Wherefore the need to train for five years in med school just to deliver a lethal injection?)
I see no need for these technicians to be members of the medical faculty - in fact I believe it would irretrievably destroy the image of doctors and nurses that (some of) the public has come to cling to in this age of retreating moralities.
It's funny, isn't it, that the public wants their doctors to act on their behalves to save life and alleviate suffering - yet at the same time it wants them to do their bidding and take lives when they deem fit.
Amongst the medical profession there is a strong disinclination to take a stand. I've had consultants ranting on their ward rounds that doctors must never, ever reveal their religious stands, and that we should all wear a standardised doctors hat, to prevent insiduous symbols creeping into the establishment, like turbans and skullcaps. "We are there for the patients."
I've also learnt the hard way that intimating my personal inclinations results in mass condemnation - and so, although it's not very Christian of me to do so, I sit on my faith at work and go about the task of being a medical technician, buffered by the knowledge that at present at least, life IS still (mostly) sacred and that it's my duty to try to help - and that on a case by case basis, sometimes inaction is the more humane of potential courses of action.
But one wonders if, and when the day will come when we are called to kill - and whether there will be any leeway for us to refuse.
I have little doubt that people will skim read these words and either pause to nod in agreement, or condemn the writer as a pretentious git. Whichever way, at least you paused if only for an instant, to think. :)
*****
The Philosopher Prince
Compare and contrast these :
BBC
The Economist
The Age
Cherian George, Singapore Window
to these :
Chua Mui Hoong, Straits Times
Cherian George, Straits Times
It must be because they are foreign devils that they dare to think critically of our perfect leader, and question our future! They cannot understand since they were not born in Singapore! We do not live in fear, we live in Consensus! (where is con-sen...) How dare they insinuate that he is anything less than the warm, gentle, child-hugging baby-loving (get your minds out of the gutter lah!) people-person OUR media has clearly shown us that he is!
These foreign devils do not understand our confucian ethics and have no reverence or respect for authority, and they do not know the meaning of responsible journalism, unlike our own glorius media. Long live the Truth!
*****
One flew over...
Oh yeah. I'd been waiting to write this once the news became public but it completely slipped my feeble mind when the moment came and went, so this is a bit belated, but seems this lucky bastard got even luckier... so... congratulations lucian. :) God bless. Everyone brace yourselves. The baby pictures are about to begin...
