![]() ![]() There are important corollaries to this sense that injustice is being done. In an age of explosive development in the realm of medical technology, it is unnerving to find that the discoveries of Salk, Sabin and even Pasteur remain irrelevant to much of the human population. In fact, most of the third world poor receive no effective biomedical care at all For many people, there is no such thing as a polio vaccine. The poor there have short life expectancies, often dying of preventable or treatable diseases or from accidents. How do they cope? Often enough, they are unable to. In the third world, where conservative estimates suggest that one billion people live in poverty, the plight of the poor is far worse. In the wealthy countries of the northern hemisphere, the relatively poor often travel far and wait long for health care inferior to that available to the wealthy. (Some of the bishops termed this "structural sin".) Structural violence is being done to them. We look at the lives of the poor and are sure, as they are themselves, that something is wrong. ![]() The judge part of the equation is important and, in one sense, pre-judged. ![]() That is, the poor are sicker than the non-poor. The bishops did not mince words: "The Puebla document," Boff remarks, "moves immediately to the structural analysis of these forces and denounces the systems, structures, and mechanisms that 'create a situation where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor, who get even poorer.'ĭiseases themselves make a preferential option for the poor. In both instances, progressive bishops, working with like-minded theologians, such as Peru's Gustavo Gutierrez, deplored the political and economic forces that bring misery to so many Latin Americans. Many would argue that liberation theology's key documents were hammered out at the bishops' meetings in Medellin in 1968 and in Puebla in 1978. It is perhaps surprising that the Catholic bishops of Latin America, traditionally allied with the elites of their countries, have more recently chosen to favor hard-bitten social analysis when examining their societies. The observe part of the formula implies analysis. Liberation theology, which argues that genuine change will be rooted in small communities of poor people, advances a simple three-part methodology- observe, judge, act. They are at heightened risk of dying prematurely, whether from increased exposure to pathogens (including pathogenic situations) or from decreased access to services or, as is most often the case, from both of these "risk factors." The insight is, in a sense, an epidemiological one: most often, diseases themselves make a preferential option for the poor. It challenges doctors and other health providers to make an option for the poor by working on their behalf. To those concerned with health, a preferential option for the poor offers both a challenge and an insight. Their poverty is therefore an evil and an injustice." Their poverty is produced by mechanisms of impoverishment and exploitation. As discussed by Leonardo Boff of Brazil, a leading contributor to the movement, "the church's option is a preferential option for the poor, against their poverty." The poor, Boff adds, "are those who suffer injustice. Proponents of liberation theology have maintained for decades that people of faith must make a preferential option for the poor. This essay of his appeared in the Jissue of America. His death at the age of 62 was announced on Sunday, Feb. ![]() physician, humanitarian and author renowned for providing health care to millions of impoverished people worldwide and who co-founded the global nonprofit Partners in Health. ![]()
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