Fink offers her view on medical ethics

Author: Johanna Interian

On March 9, Sheri Fink, MD, Ph.D, held a lecture in Dana Auditorium addressing medical ethics and healthcare treatment in areas affected by conflict and disasters.

"The primary concern of humanitarian aid is the principle of health equity," said Fink. "That means that the best in health care is available to everyone regardless of where they live or if they've been involved in a difficult situation, such as a natural disaster."

There has been controversy surrounding the policy of aid workers who witness atrocities but do not disclose them immediately. Because aid groups depend on the governments of the aggressors to allow them entrance in order to transport medicines and equipment, often aid workers will withold details in order to continue helping in these areas.

"The policies not to speak out about what they see have since been amended through Doctors Without Borders," said Fink, "and now many aid workers see it as their duty to interfere."

Fink's work has taken her to a variety of locations: South Africa, Pakistan and New Orleans, but her lecture focused mainly on her time spent in the Eastern Bloc.

After obtaining her MD from Stanford, Fink set out to Eastern Europe on a grant to do work in Bosnia for a year. She was stationed in the Kosovo-Macedonia border while the Kosovo War broke out and she decided to extend her stay in order to provide much-needed aid.

In her time there she met doctors and other aid workers who, despite personal danger, helped myriad others. She wrote an account of these stories in her book, "War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival," and she shared some of these stories in the symposium.

In the town of Srebrenica, Serbia, the population rose from 5,000 to over 50,000 after war broke out and many people were forced to migrate. The town's small hospital - which had been previously used as a maternity hospital - was now seeing patients with severe injuries caused by the fighting. A shortage of medical staff and supplies rendered the facility insufficient, and until further support came from other independent doctors and the UN, the hospital was unable to function.

"Providing medical aid in these really difficult situations requires a lot more than technical skills," she said.

One surgeon at the hospital, Dr. Nedric, refused to operate on a patient because he felt the lack of anesthesia would essentially make the amputation an act of torture.

"He could not do surgeries not complying with modern humanity," said Fink.

Another doctor was presented with a patient who was a terrorist and had just shot and killed her cousin. There were no other doctors available and if she did not treat him he would die. After some consideration, she treated the terrorist and saved his life.

"That's the most rewarding part of this job," said Fink. "That you see the best of people come out, in addition to the worst of people."