Could chekhovian humanism help us today?

In 1884 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov graduated from the Medical School and started working as a physician in a suburban Moscow hospital. Eight years later he set up a general practice in Melikhovo, 70 km south of Moscow, where he spent seven years as a country doctor and a writer. There, Chekhov saw hundreds of patients, made over 1,000 house calls, fought against cholera and illiteracy, wrote many stories and two plays: The Seagull and Uncle Vanya. He started his day at five in the morning at his office where he examined patients and performed minor surgical procedures. Chekhov was an idealist and hardworking doctor driven by his dedication to serve patients in rural Russia where corruption and incompetence ruled at all levels. He did not charge his patients although he ran a private practice. He frequently even bought for his patients needed medications and gave them useful non-medical advice and financial help. Thus, the peasants called him “an unusual doctor” [1]. Today, Russia and other Eastern European countries are subjected to the period of rapid transition from a socialistic to a capitalistic economy. A fraction of the population hurries to privatize some property that used to belong to the state. Greed dominates in this race, and even some physicians participate in this contest; while working in the state health system, they ask for bribes. The most aggressive of them hope to purchase, overnight, some property, open private clinics or even a hospital. Bribery and other ethical lapses among medical doctors and other professionals show us that human nature is still flawed. We need contemporary Chekhovian examples to inspire mankind. The Germans do not in vain have a saying: Nur ein guter Mensch kann ein guter Arzt sein (Only a good man can be a good medical doctor). Doctor-Writer