I work in medicine, and one of the hospitals in our system is the VA. I have literally no interest in serving veterans; people who fight in wars for America pretty much stand and act against everything I believe in. It's not necessarily that I think these people don't deserve great healthcare, it's that I don't want to be the one giving it to them. I would much rather spend my time serving people from my community who didn't spend large parts of their lives wrecking other communities.

Sure, some of my patients anywhere are going to be complete assholes. Sure, there are a lot of veterans who weren't involved in combat (but they did directly aid those in combat at least, right?). Idk, is there a perspective I'm not seeing here? Is it wrong for me to be morally opposed to working for the VA?

  • sailorfish [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    If this is something that weighs heavily on your mind I think you should try to find opinions from non-Americans tbh. You're never gonna get an "unbiased" answer about American veterans on chapo. If you said "I live in Israel and don't wanna serve veterans of the IDF" you'd get way more people telling you they totally get your wishes.

    If it's a more general question - idk, do doctors still swear some version of the Hippocratic Oath? Go by your personal interpretation of that, I guess. If it's specifically about working in VA vs a regular hospital in your community - I don't see how it could be wrong to prefer working in one hospital over another tbh.