The Battle Of Being Mortal

Sometimes We Can Offer A Cure, Sometimes Only A Salve, Sometimes Not Even That. But Whatever We Can Offer, Our Interventions, And The Risks And Sacrifices They Entail, Are Justified Only If They Serve The Larger Aims Of A Person's Life. When We Forget That, The Suffering We Inflict Can Be Barbaric. When We Remember It The Good We Do Can Be Breathtaking.

What About Regular Professionals, Who Just Want To Do What They Do As Well As They Can?

One Of The Reasons People Might Be Fallible, Why We Might Fail To Do What We Try To Do Isignorance, That We Have A Limited Understanding Of The Laws Of The World - The Physical Laws That Govern The World And Of All The Particulars Of The World Upon Which Those Laws Work. And Then There's Ineptitude, Meaning That The Knowledge Is Available, But Individuals Fail To Apply It Correctly. The Third Source Is "necessary Fallibility." That Is, We're Never Going To Be Omniscient, There Is Some Knowledge That We Will Simply Never Achieve, And There Are Limits To What We Will Be Able To Do.

What Is Needed, However, Isn't Just That People Working Together Be Nice To Each Other. It Is Discipline. Discipline Is Hard--harder Than Trustworthiness And Skill And Perhaps Even Than Selflessness. We Are By Nature Flawed And Inconstant Creatures. We Can't Even Keep From Snacking Between Meals. We Are Not Built For Discipline. We Are Built For Novelty And Excitement, Not For Careful Attention To Detail. Discipline Is Something We Have To Work At.

Expertise Is The Mantra Of Modern Medicine.