Fixing the Normal

I recently watched the documentary “Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors without Borders.”  This film follows two newcomer physicians to the human rights organization Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), as they learn the difficult ropes of providing medical care under harrowing conditions.

According to its website, MSF focuses its assistance on “people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from healthcare, or natural disasters.”  Consistent with this, MSF refocuses its resources away from Liberia (I think) after the end of military activities.  There are still incredible medical needs in the country with no real healthcare system.  But to serve those needs would, as one physician observes, would be to “fix the normal.”

I like this phrase and this concept.  It has been used against parts of the pharmaceutical industry that expand the concept of disease and illness to create new markets.  But it seems to also apply to end-of-life care.  Dying is normal.  Devoting tremendous resources to attempt forestalling that by hours or not at all seems like an effort to “fix the normal.”  This is especially true when there is so much else to be fixed, not only in the MSF service areas but also in the United States.