Overview

This work investigates the motivations of eye doctors who heal among the world's poor and it explores why this kind of service strikes us so deeply. It provides an insight into medicine, public health and medical ethics across cultures. The study analyses how western tradition often conflicts with traditional and contemporary belief, with examples and personal stories of opthalmologists in eight countries provided. The doctors range from missionaries to those in private service and the countries include: Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Pakistan. The stories provide medical data on each country, descriptions of treating the poor, and illustrative details about the physical and cultural settings and how these settings influenced the doctors' reactions. This text offers useful reading for a variety of school classes, public health programmes, courses in international medicine and courses in medical ethics. It should also appeal to physicians in private pracitce and trainees for foreign service.

Full Product Details

9780761801160

Table of Contents

Reviews

Anyone who never knew or who has forgotten why ophthalmologists are indispensable to society should read this book...What a welcome relief! What a breath of fresh air!--Morton F. Goldberg

Anyone who never knew or who has forgotten why ophthalmologists are indispensable to society should read this book...What a welcome relief! What a breath of fresh air!> -- Morton F. Goldberg, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine I found it a wonderfully moving treatment of a complicated topic. The motivation that allows physicians to assist fellow humans in need is described in a series of vignettes, each one giving a slightly different perspective...These stories need a wideaudience, not only to speak to the good of man but also to encourage others to come forward. -- Louis Pizzarello, Helen Keller International A very enjoyable read-material which will not date. Anecdoted chapters are unbiased and will appeal to a wide readership. We are delighted to have this book at the Resource Centre. -- Sue Stevens, International Resource Centre for Eye Health, London ...[the] analysis of charity is excellent in its historical and cultural perspective, particularly in the light of today's debate on social solidarity and equal opportunities for the disabled.....it is the first time that there has been an indepth consideration of the ethical perspective of physicians' work and a specific medical act. -- Dr. B. Thylefors, Director, World of Health Organization ...[the] analysis of charity is excellent in its historical and cultural perspective, particularly in the light of today's debate on social solidarity and equal opportunities for the disabled.....it is the first time that there has been an indepth consideration of the ethical perspective of physicians' work and a specific medical act. -- Dr. B. Thylefors, Director, World of Health Organization Anyone who never knew or who has forgotten why ophthalmologists are indispensable to society should read this book...What a welcome relief! What a breath of fresh air! -- Morton F. Goldberg, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine I found it a wonderfully moving treatment of a complicated topic. The motivation that allows physicians to assist fellow humans in need is described in a series of vignettes, each one giving a slightly different perspective...These stories need a wide audience, not only to speak to the good of man but also to encourage others to come forward. -- Louis Pizzarello, Helen Keller International A very enjoyable read-material which will not date. Anecdoted chapters are unbiased and will appeal to a wide readership. We are delighted to have this book at the Resource Centre. -- Sue Stevens, International Resource Centre for Eye Health, London

Author Information

Tela Zasloff is a writer and editor living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She formerly taught in the English departments of Carnegie Mellon University, where she received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric, and Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh. She is also the author of Saigon Dreaming: Recollections of Indochina Days (St. Martin's Press, 1990).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available