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AIDS: The Ethical Dilemma for Surgeons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Lynn M. Peterson
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Extract

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine.”

J. Donne, “Devotions,” XVII

“… Father Paneloux evoked the august figure of Bishop Belzunce during the Marseille plague. He reminded his hearers how, toward the end of the epidemic, the Bishop, having done all that it behoved him, shut himself up in his palace, behind high walls, after laying in a stock of food and drink. With a sudden revulsion of feeling, such as often comes in times of extreme tribulation, the inhabitants of Marseille, who had idolized him hitherto, now turned against him, piled up corpses around his house in order to infect it, and even flung bodies over the walls to make sure of his death. Thus in a moment of weakness the Bishop had proposed to isolate himself from the outside world—and lo and behold, corpses rained down on his head! This had a lesson for us all; we must convince ourselves that there is no island of escape in time of plague.

A. Camus, The Plague

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , Summer 1989 , pp. 139 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1989

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