Am I My Brother's Keeper

I've been reading Ranjana Srivastava's articles in the New England Journal of Medicine for several years now. An oncologist in Australia, she is also a writer of incredible grace and sensitivity. I look forward to Thursdays so I can open up my copy of the NEJM and maybe see one of her articles there. Imagine my delight at discovering that she has a website collecting a sizeable portion of her work.

"In Melbourne, I wine and dine with friends I have not seen for many weeks. I adopt all the luxuries life affords me with natural ease. Yet, in moments of quiet, I grapple with the issues of my identity and future. I write in my journal, hoping that the path ahead will suddenly become clear. Never far from my mind is the eternal, unanswered question: am I my brother's keeper?"

(from An Indian Dilemma; The Lancet, July 26 1997)