[Marxism] Re: Recrudescent debate on Schiavo

[Andy <esquincle@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 8, 2005, at 9:09 PM, <hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Andy Coates stated a phrase from Che Guevera.
> ReplY:
> i) As far as I recall his biographies, Che hardly WORKED for a
> sustained long period as a physician.
> ii) I suggest a more meaningful revolutionary example in this MEDICAL
> context, s either Virchov, or Bethune. Or, even Henry Sigerist - not
> quite a revo.
> iii) The ultra-leftism _implied_ that within capitalism no meaningful
> or humane goals can be achieved within the discipline of medicine - is
> redolent of the whole silly debate about "reform" and "revolution" as
> stark Two "separately stark & silo-ed" 'realities'..
> No thanks to such a dichotomous anti-dialectical viewpoint.

Dear Hari K,

My effort here was inspired by recent marxmail discussion (in
particular posts by Fred Feldman), thoughts of coworkers at the
hospital and also by the audience reaction to a talk I gave last week
on the practice of palliative medicine -- all in the specific context
of the recent American furor over the plight of Theresa Schiavo.

I agree with you that Virchow, Bethune and Sigerist set compelling
historical examples.  Perhaps you would have liked the piece better if,
for a tag-line, I chose instead a similar quote from one of them
instead of the lines by Che Guevara, which seems to have become stuck
in your craw.

Because your points focus upon the post-script, two lines by Che
Guevara, I find myself reluctantly tempted to restate a couple of
points of my own.

I wrote that "as someone who has had the unusual privilege to have
attended many deaths... I have been humbled again and again by families
and individuals rising to the occasion, pulling together, finding their
humanity."  Is this where I imply that "within capitalism no meaningful
or humane goals can be achieved within the discipline of medicine"?

I suggested that in "clobbering us with our own fears" with the Schiavo
"wedge issue" the corporate spokespeople had in fact drawn attention to
an area where their system is quite breaking down in human terms -- and
so through their media they stirred up, not a reactionary current
within popular society, but a wholly progressive discussion about death
and dying.  Is this so dichotomous and anti-dialectical?

I pointed out that people have been rushing this week employ existing
bourgeois law to protect themselves and their loved ones from state
intervention in their deaths by filling out health-care proxies and
living wills.  Is this ultra-leftism?

"Any serious consideration of changing the reality of our present
culture surrounding the end of life conjures up the crying need for
social change of revolutionary proportions."  Is that silliness?

Thank you for taking the time to dismiss my essay.

Andy






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