Reimagining Medicine as a Practice of Solidarity
Kalei R.J. Hosaka, MD, and Wilson D. Ricketts, MD, Division of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles
Sociologist Arthur Frank has argued that contemporary medicine is steeped in what he calls “spaceship ethics:” “When you get up in the morning, pretend your car is a spaceship. Tell yourself you are going to visit another planet. . . . On that planet, terrible things happen, but they don’t happen on my planet. They only happen on that planet I take my spaceship to each morning.”1 The culture of medical training is largely influenced by “spaceship ethics,” where healthcare professionals are taught to take “refuge in principles that place them outside, or above, the complicated, ambiguous, contradictory lives of those others who sicken and die.”2 Is there a better way that medicine can care for the souls of individuals immersed in “ambiguous, contradictory lives” of sickness and death?
In this paper, I argue that one corrective to “spaceship ethics” is reimagining medicine as a practice of solidarity. To support my thesis, I will examine the life and legacy of Father Damien, a Catholic priest from Belgium, who lived among, cared for, and died alongside people affected by Hansen’s Disease in Kalaupapa, Hawaii. I will also support my thesis by describing the ongoing work of Shalom Delhi, an organization staffed by Indian health professionals that provides medical and supportive services to socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals affected by HIV in a resource-limited part of Delhi. Shalom has notably cultivated an “institutional climate of proximity and embrace” of transgender women, aligned with its organizational mission is to “preferentially treat members of society who are vulnerable to marginalization with dignity, as exemplified by the life of Jesus.”3
While there are several limitations and critiques that can be advanced against Father Damien and Shalom Delhi – namely, extension of colonial legacies and valorization of those who care for vulnerable communities – their examples taken as a whole provide grounds for reimagining medicine as a practice of solidarity that enables healthcare professionals to engage in the ambiguous and complicated social realities of sickness and death. Such an approach reorients healthcare professionals’ lives and professional priorities around experiences of the patients they care for—being connected to them with a deep sense of shared life. In a medical culture that trains healthcare practitioners to distance themselves from patients as whole persons and their social realities, practicing solidarity encourages proximity, advocacy, dignity, and care of souls.
References:
1. Frank AW. The Wounded Storyteller: body, illness, and ethics. 2nd ed. The University of Chicago Press; 2013.
2. Charon R, DasGupta S, Hermann N, et al. 2016.
3. Kang E, Hosaka K, Andrews P, Duomai S. Conservative protestants and engagement with sexual minorities living with HIV: the role of disgust and recategorizing contact. Mental Health, Religion & Culture. 2019;22(2):195-207. doi:10.1080/13674676.2019.1598344
In this paper, I argue that one corrective to “spaceship ethics” is reimagining medicine as a practice of solidarity. To support my thesis, I will examine the life and legacy of Father Damien, a Catholic priest from Belgium, who lived among, cared for, and died alongside people affected by Hansen’s Disease in Kalaupapa, Hawaii. I will also support my thesis by describing the ongoing work of Shalom Delhi, an organization staffed by Indian health professionals that provides medical and supportive services to socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals affected by HIV in a resource-limited part of Delhi. Shalom has notably cultivated an “institutional climate of proximity and embrace” of transgender women, aligned with its organizational mission is to “preferentially treat members of society who are vulnerable to marginalization with dignity, as exemplified by the life of Jesus.”3
While there are several limitations and critiques that can be advanced against Father Damien and Shalom Delhi – namely, extension of colonial legacies and valorization of those who care for vulnerable communities – their examples taken as a whole provide grounds for reimagining medicine as a practice of solidarity that enables healthcare professionals to engage in the ambiguous and complicated social realities of sickness and death. Such an approach reorients healthcare professionals’ lives and professional priorities around experiences of the patients they care for—being connected to them with a deep sense of shared life. In a medical culture that trains healthcare practitioners to distance themselves from patients as whole persons and their social realities, practicing solidarity encourages proximity, advocacy, dignity, and care of souls.
References:
1. Frank AW. The Wounded Storyteller: body, illness, and ethics. 2nd ed. The University of Chicago Press; 2013.
2. Charon R, DasGupta S, Hermann N, et al. 2016.
3. Kang E, Hosaka K, Andrews P, Duomai S. Conservative protestants and engagement with sexual minorities living with HIV: the role of disgust and recategorizing contact. Mental Health, Religion & Culture. 2019;22(2):195-207. doi:10.1080/13674676.2019.1598344