Voices
Thomas W. McGovern, M.D., is a skin cancer surgeon in Fort Wayne, Ind., a national board member of the Catholic Medical Association and the host of the weekly magazine-style radio show
“Doctor, Doctor.”
FaithLast Take
Patients and doctors are allies separated by a common language: suffering.
Patients suffer because of their diseases, because of their feelings of alienation within a technocratic medical system and because their experience is ignored in our society that often believes the best way to get rid of suffering is to get rid of the sufferer.
In the face of these obstacles, patients seek physicians not only as experts in treating their illnesses and wounds but also as experts in alleviating their suffering. But are these expectations well founded?