No Guilt For Selfishness

Author’s note:  I’m publishing this article online now, since the newspaper editor to whom I submitted this article seemed to be uninterested in publishing it and did not reply to my email.

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Not too long ago, I wrote an article entitled, “M.D.’s on Strike: Why Doctors are Leaving and Why They Should Be Leaving”.  I posted it on my multiply blog and a mailing list I’m subscribed to.  Some received it positively, appreciating the risk to bring out an unpopular idea in the open (the only thing that perhaps hindered its offline publication is that I published it online first.  Also I have a sneaking suspicion that the newspaper opinion editor does not like bloggers).  I also got not so few violent reactions and was accused of neglect of my duties as citizen and abandoning my fellowmen.

I have a hunch that those who emailed or left me accusatory comments on my blogs meant to make me feel guilty of my “selfishness”.

But let me see, why do I need to be guilty thinking about myself?  It is in our nature to strive for self-preservation.  We are happy when we fulfill our basic needs and have work in keeping of our interests and joys.  By striving to work in another place which can provide for the needs of my family and I, I work for our survival.  By working on such place where my contributions to health care provision is better understood and appreciated, I work for my own happiness and personal growth.  Are these things evil?  Of course not.  And yet, people see my resolve to work abroad and to encourage others to do, too, if they can, as an indicator of selfishness.

According to these people who call me selfish, there’s already a dwindling number of health care professionals in the country so I should not be adding to the numbers who are already leaving.  They say I OUGHT to stay because it is my duty to my fellowmen to serve them.  They say I shouldn’t complain about being dirt poor because every doctor goes through that stage of being “dirt poor” anyway.  Note, however that those who told me to stay poor are those who are already on the other side of the globe, chilling in their parkas in the perpetual cold but can afford themselves laptops and a decent car to drive.

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