sooner or later. Just as it is irresistible to save a life, it is also very difficult to tell somebody that I cannot save them, especially if the patient is a sick child with desperate parents. The problem is made all the greater if I am not entirely certain. Few people outside medicine realize that what tortures doctors most is uncertainty, rather than the fact they often deal with people who are suffering or who are about to die. It is easy enough to let somebody die if one knows beyond doubt that they cannot be saved – if one is a decent doctor one will be sympathetic, but the situation is
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