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The United Tasks of Healing and Witnessing: The practice of combined ethics within Médecins Sans Frontières
Waters, Emma Clare
Waters, Emma Clare
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Abstract
This study focuses on the advocacy practices of the organization Médecins Sans Frontières, which is an independent provider of medical relief and other forms of humanitarian aid. Since 1971, MSF has carried out medical humanitarian missions to aid in reducing the suffering of populations due to disaster or armed conflict, delivering care irrespective of a patient’s identity. This study addresses the importance of witnessing as a core principle of MSF and examines the different forms that it takes. MSF's practice of witnessing is traced to its roots in Holocaust testimony and Camus's ethic of resistance as exemplified in La Peste. Finally, this study investigates the relationship between witnessing and medical ethics and concludes that MSF's advocacy is important to MSF’s ability to care for its patients, because healthcare and humanitarian aid cannot always be effective on their own.
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2016-01-01