Humanitarian Medicine and Moral Injury: An Inevitable Aftermath in Humanitarian Rebellion

Abstract

The Arab world is currently flooded with wars of different kinds. Yet, amidst these wars, we continue to be inspired and assuaged by the presence of humanism, particularly exemplified by field physicians who defy the odds and decide to fight warfare via medicine, showing huge moral courage yet, often, victims of moral injury. In this chapter, we point to the strength that is moral courage and delve into the moral struggle that field physicians encounter as they attempt to enact that very courage and heal patients in the detrimental conditions of war. The ensuing moral struggle, otherwise known as moral distress leading to moral injury, is a tenacious struggle that places individuals at the disadvantage of what we term “moral handicap.” Henceforth, we highlight the process of injury and argue that it is not a term exclusive to veterans and soldiers but also an injury that extends to all moral agents participating in war. We tell the story of the virtuous physician whose help is much needed, and whose resultant moral injury is dual injury not only to herself, but to the welfare of underserved and helpless patients in war zones offering a lens to physicians aiding the sick in the ravaging wars of the Middle East and providing the reader with possible solutions to alleviate that moral injury (Lachman VD, MedSurg Nursing 25:121–125, 2016; Litz B, Stein N, Delaney E, Clin Psychol Rev 29:695–706, 2009).