A Vivid Illustration of How Medicine Has Changed
This movie clip form the 1950s (Not As A Stranger) depicts Robert Mitchum as a doctor, trying to save the life of an elderly patient another doctor has written off as not worth treating. Mitchum discovers the patient has typhoid fever and saves the day.
Today, the scene would be written completely in the opposite manner. The "do nothing" doctor would be depicted as the hero and the aggressive doctor denigrated as either religious or fanatic. The patient would have Alzheimer's and the sympathy of the audience would be clearly directed on permitting death rather than saving life.
My, how times have changed.
HT: Jerri Ward and Bobby Schindler
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 2:47 PM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
That is an excellent scene capturing something of the essence of the present conflict. Thank you for hilighting this. You are a keen conoisseur for life.
Thanks. But Bobby Schindler and Jerri Ward laid it in my lap. All I did was post it.
How many lawyers are flanking the new Hollywood doc, some threatening him with murder and/or assault charges if he does treat, some telling him that he's already broken 8 or 9 'fraudandabuse' regulations, and some just generally disparaging his entire profession?
I do remember the Michael Caine movie about the 'doctor' who ran the orphanage and did abortions on the side. And the awards given to the pro-abortion film makers by fellow pro-abortion insiders and media-types.
Please don't act as though doctors have all become murderous in their intentions and actions. How much nicer it would have been to click on this site to read praise for the nobile tradition of medicine and the men and women who continue to fight for life.
LifeEthics.org:
I don't think the post was intended to be a criticism of doctors. I think it was meant to point out how public perception has changed. Smith seems to be referring to attitude, not health care workers. At least to me.
I was referring to a few things. First, how the popular culture has changed. I can't imagine a Hollywood writer writing the scene depicted today. Second, how too often now, the benefit of the doubt goes to death. Third, the idea that oldsters could just be written off was beyond the pale then--Mitchum telling the do nothing doctor that his job is to keep them alive. Of course, we believe today that the patient depticted could have refused care, but the doctor should not abandon. Yet, with futile care theory, we approach the ends, if not the means of just allowing him to lie alone in a bed, depicted in the scene.
I most certainly was not attacking health care workers. They are in the trenches working valiantly under very trying conditions and a decidedly shifting ethical adtmosphere.
I just went through all of this with my mother. God. Where is the soul of humanity!!!
What is wrong with the medical world today? Where are the Robert Mitchums!!!!!
I'm so upset.
Thank you for posting this. It makes me want to pick up a few doctors and nurses I met with a few months ago and knock them against the wall. They too think I'm insane.
Can't we form a powerful political party?
Mr. Smith, Will you run for president? Short of that, how about Robert Mitchum!
I just worked on a fabulous book by a guy named Bill Rothschild. It's about the history of GE before and including Jack Welch. It may not seem relevant, but it is because the theme that ran through the entire book was that GE succeeded because it recognized the worth of people and invested in them and treated them well. It so well amplified the theme of my life, the point I made to my children day in and day out, that people are not interchangeable parts, that once a person is gone, he or she is not replaced. Their skills, their gifts, their intelligence--all are gone forever. I made this point so they would realize that their own lives were important and that they should take care of their own lives. But over time it came to be a truism proved time and time again. Why are we throwing people away like this?!!!
Mari: I am very sorry you had such a bad experience. I hear a lot of such stories. But we also need to remember that there are many nurses, doctors, social workers, chaplains, and administrators who work very hard to keep medicine ethical and care for their patients.
I could not be elected President. And Robert Mitchum is deceased. But we both thank you for your support.
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