Restoring Vision

This book explores what motivates eye doctors to heal among the world's poor, and why this kind of service strikes us so deeply. It combines the topics of medicine, public health, and medical ethics across cultures, including Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, India, China, Pakistan, and the United States. The first chapter, "Charity, an extended definition" is a discussion of contemporary and traditional notions of charity in the religious and cultural settings where the doctors are serving. "Caring and curing: The physician in the community" explores how medicine has traditionally served a community and the problems Western, particularly American doctors perceive in maintaining that tradition. "The eye" is a tribute to the marvel and complexity of the eye, including its physiological, clinical, and metaphorical aspects. The "Exempla" section is the bulk of the book, containing personal stories of ophthalmologists in eight countries who are treating the poor, medical data on each country, descriptions of the physical and cultural settings that color their work, and the author's own reactions. There is a wide range of physicians here—missionaries, those in private practice including some from privileged backgrounds, survivors of the Cultural Revolution in China, a distinguished Hindu family in India. This book offers excellent reading for a variety of medical school classes, public health programs, courses in international medicine and courses in medical ethics. Restoring Vision will also appeal to physicians in private practice and trainees for foreign service.