Althouse: "I want to become a doctor... because I want to save people."

December 6, 2012

"I want to become a doctor... because I want to save people."

"And when I do, I won't take any money from them."

16 comments:

rhhardin said...: From horror to hope: Boy's miracle recovery from brutal attack

Out-of-material headlines.; 12/6/12, 9:56 AM
Sydney said...: It is possible to provide medical care for people without taking money from them. But, to do that, you have to get someone else to give the money and supplies to provide the treatment.

I admire the boy's spirit. But he is a little naive about the overhead required for a doctor to save people. Even in the third world.; 12/6/12, 10:02 AM
Nonapod said...: Have fun paying off your $600k+ in loans for college + med school.; 12/6/12, 10:03 AM
Wince said...: Beggar mafias there, poverty pimps here.

But the existence and prevalence of "beggar mafias" is an open secret in South Asian countries.

Pity pays.

So, the gangs kidnap and cripple children -- knowing sympathetic passersby are more likely to be touched by, and give to, a limbless child.

Almost half of Bangladesh's 150 million people live on less than a dollar a day. The economy has slowed; poverty is skyrocketing.

"They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please."

Government Cheese

Give a man a free house and he'll bust out the windows
Put his family on food stamps, now he's a big spender
no food on the table and the bills ain't paid
'Cause he spent it on cigarettes and P.G.A.
They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please
They're feeding our people that Government Cheese

Give a man a free lunch and he'll figure out a way
To steal more than he can eat 'cause he doesn't have to pay
Give a woman free kids and you'll find them in the dirt
Learning how to carry on the family line of work
It's the man in the White House, the man under the steeple
Passing out drugs to the American people
I don't believe in anything, nothing is free
They're feeding our people the Government Cheese

Decline and fall, fall down baby
Decline and fall, said fall way down now
Decline and fall, fall down little mama
Decline and fall, decline and fall

Give a man a free ticket on a dead end ride
And he'll climb in the back even though nobody's driving
Too ******* lazy to crawl out of the wreck
And he'll rot there while he waits for the welfare check
Going to hell in a handbag, can't you see
I ain't gonna eat no Government Cheese; 12/6/12, 10:05 AM
bagoh20 said...: A powerful story but it seems a little ironic that it all happened as an attempt to force him into begging, then afterward he wants to be a doctor...and a beggar.; 12/6/12, 10:10 AM
edutcher said...: Gutsy kid, but this is another reason why FDR was a fool to insist on the dissolution of the British Empire as a condition of help.; 12/6/12, 10:11 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Nice contrast in this story and the one in the previous post.

In one part of the world people, living on a dollar a day, need to worry about their children being captured, mutilated and forced to beg for the purpose of enriching a "begging mafia" type of gang.

Meanwhile, self absorbed women are spending time obsessing about their ability to have satisfying orgasms. They spend over about three times what it takes a person to survive in Bangladesh for the thrill of having fabulous orgasms for a few months and then need to repeat the process.

You asked yesterday if we have lost our soul. I think the answer is...YES.; 12/6/12, 10:16 AM
Paul said...: We will see after EIGHT years of study, internship, etc... if this guy still wants to work free.

And that presumes he passes all the classes and exams (and has the money to do it.); 12/6/12, 10:19 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: ... because I want to save people.

... but one day the boy grew up and became a man... and went down the subway with a camera.; 12/6/12, 10:33 AM
William said...: It's a competitive field, but these gangs must be the most evil people in the world. It's worth noting that there is a human rights group that criticizes the brigade that tracks these gangs down and sometimes administers extrajudicial punishment to them.....The motivations of both the good and the evil on this earth are hard to fathom.; 12/6/12, 10:55 AM
bagoh20 said...: The thing to do son, is to become a rich doctor, and then you can help a lot more people for free, and throw some financial support to the brigades trying to stop the predators who hurt you and others. Aim higher, kid.; 12/6/12, 11:27 AM
n.n said...: Unless you are self-sufficient, which is highly implausible in our world, then you will require a negotiable currency to compensate others for products and services they will provide. While helping others through charity is ideal, it is a supplementary system, and can only be reasonably provisioned with an excess of labor and wealth.

The goal should be rehabilitation, whether through medical care, education, or whatever, in order to return the individual to productive participation in a society. We should not transform the provider of products and services to become the servant of the consumer. There is no value in exchanging one extreme for another, because in both cases you will engender progressive corruption.; 12/6/12, 11:51 AM
Alex said...: DBQ - are all Christian women obsessed with liberal womens' orgasm frequency?; 12/6/12, 3:54 PM
Alex said...: bagoh - it's useless trying to reason with the slave mentality.; 12/6/12, 3:54 PM
Michael K said...: I've known doctors who wouldn't take money, or who donated their salary. The chief of Pathology at my medical school, Hugh Edmondson, who was one of the Edmondson family of Oklahoma, was a world renowned pathologist who donated his salary to the medical school. The chief of surgery did the same and lived on his private practice. I knew a couple of well known doctors in Boston who did the same.

Today, the children of wealth live lives of luxury and decadence, like Paris Hilton.

One of the most famous was the novel "Magnificent Obsession" which was written by Lloyd C Douglas, a well known minister and author. It was based on the life of Edgar Kahn MD, the founder of the neurosurgery department at the U of Michigan. It is an amazing story and might even be true. Nobody knows. If you have read the novel, you know why.; 12/6/12, 9:17 PM
kentuckyliz said...: My oncologist used to comp half her caseload.

Now she is a hospital employee and doesn't get to make that decision.

The hospital gets its money.; 12/7/12, 6:14 AM