Dad Home

Nearly a week after he went into the hospital, Dad came home.  I'm not sure what time it was today, but the doctors sent him home despite his diverticulitis and a few other lingering issues.  Apparently they feelt the benefits of Dad being able to go home to rest outweigh the negatives.  I can certainly understand that it is likely a LOT easier to sleep and heal at home than it would be in a hospital.  I've never really understood that aspect of modern medicine.  The fact that they so regularly disturb resting patients suggests to me they undervalue sleep in the healing process.

As much as I'm grateful for modern medicine, I'm caught in the tug of war between technology and natural healing.  Clearly there are things modern technology can do (like removing or replacing a lung) that go far beyond what any holistic medicine will address.  Yet there seems to be more value to dietary changes, exercise, vitamins, rest, and prayer than I think most doctors are even willing to consider.  Perhaps they are nurtured on a world view that encourages a far more mechanistic view of the human body?  I can see where a coldly clinical approach to humanity would rob one of a broader perspective.

When I think about this sort of thing, my mind inevitably goes to two books that have been highly influential in my thinking.  One is Lewis' The Abolition of Man, a very short but deep book that explores the nature of truth and perspective.  He believes man is not mere machine, and that concepts like sublimity are not social constructs but statements of real value that correspond to an objective reality is a sort of divinely inspired Platonism.  The other is Huxley's Brave New World, a novel written about the human race after it has achieved its current cultural goals.  We have it all, entertainment, happiness, physical pleasure without consequence, reproduction without pain -- and yet find ourselves impoverished once we've finally arrived at our apparent destination.

What does all this have to do with modern medicine and my Dad being sent home from the hospital?  Perhaps nothing, but maybe everything.  What is the point of prolonging life when we don't know why we live?  And can doctors who do not understand the true nature of humanity really be expected to grasp the nuances of healing in a body that is more than matter?  Years ago I met Hugh Ross, a scientist and doctor who had been part of the cloning project in Scotland.  This is when the sheep "Dolly" was successfully cloned.  Of course such medical advancement invites numerous questions.  I asked him one of them.  "What do you think of the morality of cloning humans?"  He responded that once this sort of thing was done, it is likely people would discover we wouldn't be getting what we were looking for.  Clones would be less like the original than "identical twins," and of course be a different age as well.  Beside, he went on, "we can clone a body, but we cannot clone a soul."

The limits of medicine are far greater when doctors and scientists do not grasp this concept.  Yes, you can make the body function; but is that truly the essence of healing?  Or is it possible that for true healing to take place, we must address both body and soul?  If doctors really believed this, it would rock the medical establishment.  Not only this, it would likely also throw yet another wrench into what role we think the government ought to play in health care.