Physicians Should Be Humble

Here's a sketch of a (philosophy) argument.
1. Medicine is oriented against death.
2. Death is inevitable.
3. Medicine cannot "win" if it is opposed to something inevitable.
Therefore, physicians as practitioners of medicine should be humble and acknowledge the limits of their abilities.

Now, I think this argument is a terrible one; it may not be valid without all the steps fleshed out, and I certainly don't think it is sound. I disagree with the first premise. And indeed, anyone who has thought about issues of end-of-life care, the purpose of medicine, or the humanistic "healer's art" would vehemently argue that the relationship between medicine and death is obscure. Indeed, medical school has few lectures on death, dying, and how to deal with it. Death is not the subject of this post, but it is something I have thought a good deal about, and perhaps something that will come out more in these posts as I collect my thoughts.

I will say that though death is inevitable, medicine has many different goals and purposes existing in various relationships with the concept of death. The fact that doctors cannot stop you or me from someday dying does not make medicine futile, worthless, impotent, or hopeless. However, I do agree with the conclusion. Physicians must be humble. There are limits to what we know and what we can do about the human body and disease. We must acknowledge them, but we must also realize that the purview of medicine extends far beyond combating death.