Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010 Oct;143(4):476-9. doi: 10.1016/j.otohns.2010.05.011. Epub 2010 Aug 16.
Each year scores of American physicians and nurses travel overseas, usually at their own expense, aiming to improve the lot of desperate patients in developing countries. Our journals are filled with images of smiling children who have benefited from these gifts of care. Still, practicing medicine, and especially surgery, in a sporadic fashion in distant lands can lead to poor outcomes. It does little to improve public health or advance medical education. We address some of the ethical dilemmas intrinsic to international surgical missions and discuss how we might redirect our resources to provide better care to more people.
每年都有数十名美国医生和护士自费前往海外，旨在改善发展中国家贫困患者的命运。我们的期刊上充满了这些关怀礼物使孩子们受益的微笑照片。尽管如此，在遥远的地方零星地行医，尤其是进行外科手术，可能会导致不良后果。这对改善公共卫生或促进医学教育几乎没有帮助。我们解决了国际外科任务中固有的一些道德困境，并讨论了如何重新调整我们的资源，以便为更多人提供更好的护理。
