Homework #24: Illness and Dying Book Part Three

Précis

            Paul Farmer is an anthropologist/doctor whose work revolves around infectious disease. Growing up in poverty in the United States, Farmer and his family struggled at times to make ends meet. Despite this, Farmer was educated at Harvard Medical School and devotes his time battling infectious disease in third world countries. During his time at Harvard Medical, Farmer flew back and forth to Haiti, treating patients and constructing Zanmi Lasante, his treatment center in Cange, Haiti, offering free services. He then created Partners in Health, an organization that strives to raise money and fund the battle against disease for those who cannot afford it. Jim Kim and Ophelia Dahl become his partners in heading the organization, Kim eventually opening up a branch in Peru. Because of his success in both Haiti and Peru, Farmer is then asked to extend his treatment to those contained in Russian prisons. Known for his compassion and empathy, Farmer continuously forms a strong impression on the medical community. Lowering the price of drugs, correcting flawed medical systems, and working with his patients on a personal basis, Farmer attempts to move the world’s medical structure forward.

Quotes

“It was as if in seeking out suffering in some of the world’s most desperate locales, he made himself immune to the self-consuming varieties of psychic pain,” (p. 189).

Farmer no longer suffered because it was inferior to the suffering that he found around him.

“One can guess a lot abut the economic condition of a country by inspecting the baggage people carry there from the United States, the shopping mall for the poor countries of the world,” (p. 191).

A country can be defined by what people feel they need and can afford.

“Countries with the steepest grades of inequality and the greatest poverty have the biggest AIDS problems...We need to erase social inequalities, and very few countries have done that,” (p. 199).

Social inequality leads to the spread of infectious disease.

“He was like a compass, with one leg swinging around the globe, and the other planted in Haiti,” (p. 260).

Farmer’s home was Haiti, while he addressed the issues around the world.

“He’s still going to make these hikes, he’d insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you’re saying that their lives matter less than some others’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world,” (p. 294).

People need to recognize that no life is better than another in order to address the conflicts in the world.

Thoughts

            I feel that in this last third of the book, the stories became a bit repetitive. Farmer obviously made many advances in fundraising for medicine and conducting effective programs, but it was overemphasized. There was an entire section about how people did not believe that they could do what Farmer did, and he agreed. His reply however was that he wanted them to do the same thing, but it did not have to be in the same way that he did it – the one point that people do not seem to understand. Farmer’s way of approaching disease is interesting. No case is left untreated is an admirable way to go about things, one that people need to address. So many times it seems in our current medical structure people are turned down health insurance and care simply because they are already pre-diagnosed; Health insurers seem no reason to support someone already sick. Farmer does not try to defy the dominant methods instead he embraces them. The difference between him and the rest of the medical community is that money is no longer involved and every life has value, no matter the case. Maybe if we learned to see the world through the eyes of Farmer, we could begin to redefine the medical world.