Humanism: What does it entail ?
Healthcare is often equated with self-less service. Healthcare providers are trained to be non-discriminatory, to view every sufferer as a human, regardless of race, religion, creed, social or economic status. This humanism is often a tough ideal to uphold, especially when conflicted with self-preservation, and financial well-being. Humanism itself is a controversial concept. It itself is often motivated by the same religious doctrines, it aspires to disentangle itself from.
In this blog, lets focus on three humanists who left their impact on medical history – Albert Schweitzer, Dwarkadas Kotnis, and Mother Teresa.
Albert Schweitzer: From Germany to Gabon
Postal legacy of a humanist lies in the count of countries, that issue commemorative issues. This count is high for Albert Schweitzer, but I have with me postal stamps from Hungary, Germany, and Denmark. I indent to add more, as I expand my collection.
Albert was born in 1875, and being son of a pastor, he was drawn to theology in his formative years. He also developed love and passion for music. He was drawn towards healthcare, and healing towards the end of his PhD in theology in 1899. In 1906, he entered medical school, and specialised in tropical medicine and surgery in 1913. His wife, Helene Bresslau had meanwhile trained as a nurse. Together, they sailed to French Equatorial Guinea (now Gabon), and established a hospital at Lambaréné.
Schweitzer and his wife were a wholesome two, who encountered a variety of tropical diseases such as leprosy, malaria, yellow fever, and sleeping sickness. They were arrested as prisoners of war in 1917 (as they were German citizens in a French colony), and brought back to Europe. In 1924, they were back in Lambaréné. In next 26 years, their hospital grew with three physicians, seven nurses and 13 volunteers. Albert Schweitzer was awarded Nobel Peace prize in 1952. He died in 1965 at age of 90, and at this time his hospital had 70 buildings, 350 beds and a leper colony with 200 inmates. He was buried at Lambaréné after his death.
Kotnis: From India to China
Dwarkadas Kotnis, born in 1910, was a young medical graduate from GS Seth Medical College in India in 1938. The same year, he and four other medical doctors volunteered for service in China. They were to provide medical assistance to communists in China, who were engaged in a war with the colonial powers. While other members of the mission returned back to India, Kotnis stayed on. In 1940 he married Guo Qinglan, a nurse and two years later they had a son. Kotnis had meanwhile drowned himself in work, and became famous as a prominent battlefield doctor. He died in 1942, after suffering multiple seizures, as a young age of 32.
Mother Teresa: From Albania to India
Born in 1910 (same year as Kotnis), Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu was 18 when she choose religious life and joined Sisters of Loreto. She reached India in 1929, learned local language, and started teaching at Loreto convent in Calcutta. Teresa was her adopted name, and by 1944, when she had become headmistress of her school, she was known as Mother Teresa.
There was a famine in Bengal in 1943, partly due to food shortages fuelled by Second World War. The situation was compounded by religious riots in 1946-47. She left her convent, to establish missionaries of Charity, and obtained basic medical training. She opened her first hospice for poor in 1952, followed by a leprosy home and an orphanage. By 1960, missionaries had received enough donations to establish orphanages and leprosy homes across India.
She received various recognitions across the globe. She was the recipient of First Albert Schweitzer prize in 1975. In 1979, she was awarded with a Nobel Peace Prize.
At the time of her demise in 1997, missionaries of charity had an international repute for selfless service. It had 517 missions across 100 countries. Mother Teresa was also facilitated by numerous heads of State. She was also recognised as a revered figure by the Catholic Church. In 2016 she was canonised by the Catholic Church in Vatican, to be known as St Teresa thereafter.
Throughout history humanists have been criticised, either during life or after death. Both Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa have been criticised for perpetuating religious beliefs, some of which are at odds with the changing times. Modernity considers their health-care systems as frugal. Yet, there are only a handful of examples of individuals humanists, who served poor and sick, faraway from their countries of origin, and outside state sponsored systems.