Death of a patient -- a la Death of A Salesman, by American Playwright Arthur Miller, who famously married and divorced Marilyn Monroe as her second husband, a literary masterpiece in 1949 in post-war America, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, that focuses on middle-class anxieties and the hollow values of material successes that do not hit till near-dissolution, -- can make therapists sit up, if only for a moment to question the morality of science itself and its practice.
The capitalist country that USA is, with the dollar as the God of all things, small or big, swimming in poverty or a grandeur-beyond-even-dreams nauseous uber-luxury, has turned the science of medicine into perfection at the till. Gradually, rather in a genartion or two, American physicians (and surgeons) lost their vocation, and physicians over the rest were not too far behind.
There is a madding and maddening rush at the FDA of the USA to approve gadgets and medicines. Consequences of that rush hits hard the families of those whose loved ones get worse or even die in the early stages of such trial-approved drugs or procedures. And, magnificently, the buck stops nowhere.
Guns, tobacco, pawn-shops, human and drug trafficking, organ harvesting, Casinos, the color of the skin, corrupt cops, child molestation and porn, and much more bedevils United States of America - a nation whose pride crosses the farthest galaxy and whose dreams are a pure, singular domination over Earth.
To die of a medical procedure is simply horrendous.
The capacity to mourn has been lost.
The respect for those who have passed ahead of us lies only in reservations of the indigenous so-called Indians, forced >4 centuries ago to give up their lands, their love for the Earth and its trees, and their supernatural customs by the bullet of the invaders from Europe. The Last of the Mohicans captured this essence and ostracized a man of mark.
Come, let us join in putting back the moral(s) of medicine for future generations.
We and our loved ones will need them and their morals critically at some time in the future.
18-MAY-2024
New Delhi
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-67705916
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