Doing the Right Thing

Lisa A. Moreno, MD MS MSCR FAAEM FIFEM

We are living in strange and complicated times. Our planet is home to 195 nations, 4,200 different religions and hundreds of political parties, all of which embrace different ethics, concepts of God, and philosophies of good and evil. What is common to all national constitutions, religions, and philosophies is the concept of loving our fellow humans as we love ourselves and treating others as we want to be treated. Everyone agrees that this is “the right thing to do.” Unfortunately, doing the right thing is very often not the easy thing. The easy thing is to say, “My way is the right way,” “One person can’t make a difference,” or “This is just the way things are.” Yet all of these easy answers have proven false repeatedly throughout history. “My way is the right way” leads to events like the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and the massacre of the Yazidi people. “One person can’t make a difference” denies the power of Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Cesar Chavez. “This is just the way things are” renders us impotent and helpless and, as Rev. Martin Niemoller famously said, if we stand for no one, no one will be left to stand for us. We need to ask ourselves if the way that we are treating others is the way we want to be treated. Would I want my employer to tell me that I will no longer be on the schedule, have no right to know why, have no right to appeal the decision, and cannot seek other employment within 50 miles of the hospital? Corporate medical groups do this to doctors every day when they demand that we waive our due process rights. Would I, as a heterosexual female, want to be told that I must identify myself as a male, answer to the name of “Ralph,” and use the men’s toilets in public buildings? This is what is done to our transgender patients in hospitals all over the world every day. Would I, as I prepare to go out jogging, want to need to know that there is a reasonable likelihood that I could be shot dead because I look like someone who might have done a robbery recently, or as I am out in my car that I could be told to lay on the ground while a police officer sworn to protect and defend me, presses his knee down on my neck until I am dead? This is the awareness that every Black man in America lives with, wakes up to, contemplates every time he leaves his home. I would ask each of us who is not that Black man to think about what it means to need to maintain that constant level of vigilance in order to stay alive in an environment in which YOU are a disposable commodity. Stop. Think about that. Now.

As physicians, we are people with tremendous power. We are more educated, more financially secure, more respected, and more skilled than most other people in the world are. We have a platform, and we have the power to influence others. Power is the privilege to do the right thing. Power is the privilege of giving a voice to those who do not have the

THE ACADEMY HAS ITS ORIGINS IN DOING THE RIGHT THING, EVEN WHEN THE RIGHT THING IS THE HARDER THING TO DO, EVEN WHEN THE RIGHT THING IS THE LESS POPULAR THING TO DO.

education, the financial security, and the respect of society: the homeless, those who suffer from mental illness and substance addiction, the undocumented. As emergency physicians, we do this every day. As the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, we were founded on these principles. Our

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Would I want my employer to tell me that I will no longer be

on the schedule, have no right to know why, have no right to appeal the decision, and cannot seek other employment within 50 miles of the hospital?