That Jewish doctor and his dilemma
sabato 13 novembre 2010 English 1 commento
Il Giornale, November 13, 2010Let me make it clear: I would have performed that surgery, out of sense of responsibility as a doctor and sympathy as a human being and also because in any Jewish person, either religious or secular like me, human life is a primary precept. Life comes first, before anything else, even before shabbat, the day of holy rest: even then, to save one’s own life or that of others, those who observe the precepts can disobey the rule without sinning. Just a moment please, however, we’re not talking about irresponsibility, whatever else this may be: the Jewish-German doctor from Padeborn in Northern Westfalia who refused to operate on the 36-year-old patient with a big swastika and golden eagle tatooed on his arm, didn’t walk away and leave him to die. The patient is fine – a substitute doctor did the surgery. But there is still a serious question: is the overwhelming memory of the Nazi horror a justification for refusing to treat a neo-Nazi, antisemitic, evil idiot, tatooed with a swastika? The answer, as we said, is so obvious as to be trite: sixty years have gone by, the patient is 36, and in any case, a doctor always treats a patient, no matter what, no matter who.
Now that we’ve said it again, however, let’s also try to understand the doctor: at 46 he, like almost all the Jews in Europe, could be a son or grandson of parents and grandparents gassed at Auschwitz, exterminated with boiling water (as they did at Sobibor), beating, or starvation. All in the sign of that symbol blazing darkly on his patient’s arm. Above all, if a person just glances at the newspapers or watches TV, he cannot fail to notice the assault of an entirely contemporary violence, that is not just about the past, but has to do with the present. The doctor, we could think, is not only angry about the past but alarmed about the present.
If we take Germany and look at the excellent indicator of the web network, we can see that neo-Nazi websites have increased from 800 last year to 1872 this year, and it’s not over yet. One fifteen-year-old out of every 20 belongs to a neo-Nazi group. The neo-Nazi messages broadcast to children and young rock music fans based on hatred for the Jews, also in Germany, have increased from 750 on the relative webs to 6000. This 46-year-old doctor has to pay very close attention to what his children read on Facebook or hear on Youtube. In East Germany, neo-Nazis are even organizing ideological kindergartens under their own management. The neo-Nazi rap that incites listeners to kill Jews and blacks is hugely popular, as are the messages that claim the Holocaust is a Jewish invention to justify their crimes or the illegal existence of the State of Israel, which has now become the focus of their attacks.
This doctor who refused to operate the neo-Nazi could be very worried, or angry, because he has had experience with the thousands of antisemitic attacks that are sweeping Europe, especially since immigration has brought a great influx of political Islamism into our countries, ready to join a common front with the neo-Nazis when it comes to antisemitism, even when the far right is xenophobic. All the studies confirm, and the German police have made it a basic premise, that the neo-Nazi and Jihadist groups work together in the antisemitic field, with exponential results. One Jewish cemetery a week is vandalized, and grafitti and violence have increased from 36 to 183; synagogues are attacked; recently, in Hanover, at the international Fest in which everyone sang, from Afghans to Turks, a Jewish chorus barely escaped the mob’s murderous rage.
I don’t know if the doctor knows, though he may, that antisemitic incidents in the world in 2009 reached the highest number since World War II: in 2009 there were 1129 violent attacks compared with 78 in 1989; that there is a genocidal antisemitism in the world right now exactly like that enacted by Hitler; that Ahmadinejad swears to destroy the Jewish State; or about the Hamas declaration that explains how it is essential to kill Jews everywhere in the world. Young Ilan Halimi was killed after 24 days of torture to the rhythm of the Qoran readings, merely because he was Jewish, and this happened in the civilized Paris. Even there, it is not a good idea to wear a star of David on a chain around your neck. In Amsterdam you risk being stabbed, and many Jewish families have already moved out of Malmo, in Sweden; neo-Nazism is increasing in the Ukraine. Our doctor is right to feel nervous when he sees a swastika. Too many people like it.
Recently more than 50 parliaments, including our own, sent their representatives to Ottawa to the second Interparliamentary Conference on Combating Antisemitism. It is a sign that some countries are starting to get organized. The conference issued a protocol defining and indicating ways to contrast the phenomenon.
But a Jewish doctor, a lonely man of this world, who lives in present-day Germany, face to face with a patient to whom he owes the utmost solidarity, sees a swastika tattoed on the patient’s arm, and suddenly feels alone and disoriented. Can we blame him?
venerdì 10 dicembre 2010 01:19:06
The World Health Organisation Declaration of Helsinki on medical ethics actually supports the doctor in the story.That is, if the surgeon is too emotional to peform the operation because the patient wishes him harm, he may hand over the case to another surgeon who is immediately available.If however, there is no other surgeon available, he must do it himself.