The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in many insidious handmaidens among its foul equipage. From Zoom meetings and school closures to masks and lockdowns, our world was torn asunder and, eventually, rendered anew into a place where almost everything has been changed, by large degrees and small, perceptibly and imperceptibly. It will come as no surprise that medicine is foremost among the more obviously perceptible areas of life that have been irrevocably …
First, do no harm. For physicians, these are hallowed words. Within religion, they are akin to the Golden Rule and are, in fact, quite similar. In the realm of ethics, Kant’s categorical imperative, to only do what you would have seen done universally to all people, comes to mind as a suitable comparative axiom. Other professions have curious and interesting maxims as well. In politics, when you strike at a …
The vast ethical void between primum non nocere and the customer is always right
“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.”
– Osler, “Aequanimitas”
Recently, my family and I were leaving a restaurant, and in so doing, we crossed a large parking lot filled with a seemingly endless number of pebbles. My youngest daughter, whose hand I was holding, suddenly pulled away from me. I stopped short, about to reinforce with her the importance of holding hands in the parking …
In medicine, find the beauty in what is common
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