THE SEVEN (DEADLY) SINS OF HUMANITARIAN MEDICINE
(By David G. Burris / Norman M. Rich / James M. Ryan / David R. Welling in World Journal of Surgery, 1/9/2010)I’m not a subscriber to the World Journal of Surgery, but a member of our family is. He teaches emergency medicine in Turkey. He sent me this article. And my reason for posting it? That you pray. Pray that every dollar that’s given and every helper descending in all necessary haste on Haiti will do well.
It doesn’t take much imagination to think of the things that can go wrong when aid workers and rescuers mess up or, through short sight, need to be rescued themselves. Here is the sin list of humanitarian medicine. But there’s a wider application. Well-doing can go wrong in other departments. Some well-meaning Christians from an Idaho congregation are now being charged with child abduction in their rescue of Haitian children. Seems they were trying to cross into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation for the children. That’s messy! Here’s the list:
1-Leaving a mess behind
2-Failing to match technology to local needs and abilities
3-Failing of non-government leaders to cooperate and help each other
4-Failing to have a follow-up plan
5-Allowing politics or other distracting goals to trump service; “using” disaster self-interestedly
6-Going where we are not wanted or needed and/or being poor guests
7-Doing the right thing for the wrong reason
Maybe we ought to have some kind of missionary Hippocratic Oath for situations like this in Haiti. “Do no harm.” So, go, give, pray for the life of Haiti. Pray: “Dear Savior, help us not sin in well-doing.”
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