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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Pro bono? It would apply probably just as much (if not more) to doctors doing community service. I may even live long enough to see that happen outside of movies.
- Pfranz
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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eleemosynary?
1. Of or pertaining to alms or almsgiving; charitable. eleemosynary house, corporation, one established for the distribution of alms, etc.
c1630 RISDON Surv. Devon §293 (1810) 302 These her eleemosinary acts..are almost vanished. 1695 KENNETT Par. Antiq. ix. 659 The Elemosinary House or Hospital for the maintenance of two Capellanes. 1702 in Lond. Gaz. No. 3812/1 Divers Persons to whom Eleemosinary Protections were granted. 1827 HALLAM Const. Hist. (1876) I. ii. 80 The blind eleemosynary spirit inculcated by the Romish church is notoriously the cause..of beggary. 1865 H. STAUNTON Grt. Schools Eng., Dulwich 502 Three [portions] are assigned to the Educational and one to the Eleemosynary branch.
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In reply to:
And altruistic, however close, is somewhat more akin to charity set ups and medicine is most definitely not that!
I disagree that altruism pertains to charity. One can give to charity and be quite egotistical about it. Altruism (as it pertains to medicine) is a matter of putting the patient's needs ahead of your own. Altruism is not a matter of declining compensation for work (not exactly the same as profit, by the way). A physician who agrees to waive his fee but makes the patient wait three hours while he finishes a round of golf before before performing any medical service is not being especially altruistic. A physician who spends 6 weeks a year performing surgery (with no financial compensation) in El Salvador on pediatric patients with cleft palates is doing something both charitable and altruistic. The orgnaization Doctors Without Borders is devoted to doing work that is both charitable and altruistic. A hospital that continues to run a department that is not especially profitable, such as pediatrics, is doing so because to simply refuse to treat children would be unethical in light the altruistic expectations of the profession. A hospital uses the monies of more profitable departments such as surgery or radiation oncology to help support less profitable (or even money-losing) departments.
In contrast, a strictly for-profit business such as, say, the Coca-Cola Company, would be perfectly willing to completely drop a line of product that wasn't sufficiently profitable and invest their capital those products with the highest rate of return. This is because their primary aim is make a profit, and the product itself has no value beyond its ability to generate profit.
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I seem to have offended, Alex. Do accept my apologies and let me rush to assure you that there was certainly no derogatory intent. I'd still struggle with the word altruistic though; somehow signifies a greater purpose or calling and i'd still like to look at it as a job. More on that however another time; i do digress... Am completely in agreement with the rest...and dont u see, that is exactly what i am searching for. The word that separates the coca cola companies and us? somehow the entire essay seems somewhat bereft without the word. The word that implies professionalism without the intent of making a profit. A counterpoint to capitalistic enterprise, maybe. But what is it???? I still can only come up with not-for-profit.
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I like!!!
Pro bono publico (Latin): for the public good
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Thanks Pfranz; the previous was meant for you!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm glad it satisfies you, maahey, but I can't quite accept it. You'll find members of all professions (yes, even lawyers!) who do pro bono work. But I can't see characterizing an entire profession as pro bono. Alex's examples of such work are good. But then you have plastic surgeons in Rio de Janeiro who own entire islands bought with the huge fees paid them by fading socialites.
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eleemosynary?
Nice word, but not convinced that it applies to the medical profession.
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Iatric? It doesn't seem to exist in English except as part of "iatrogenic". But the definition of that word and its origin suggests to me that iatric, all by itself, ought to mean "of or pertaining to physicians".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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from OED2:
iatric - rare.
Belonging or relating to a physician or to medicine; medical; medicinal.
1865 Englishm. Mag. Feb. 158 The iatric powers with which he [Ęsculapius] is credited.
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