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Vallee L. Willman, MD

AMA Arch Surg. 1972;105(2):149-150.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Graham Greene in his book, The Heart of the Matter,¹ depicts a man of good will who, when he became entangled in the complexities of his personal and professional life, abdicated his long-standing principles by taking his life. Scobie, faced with the problem of a wife and a mistress, both of whom he truly loved, and also involved in professional activities that were below his expectation for himself, feigned chest pain, obtained a diagnosis of angina pectoris—and medication—and then drugged himself to death. He justified his action, which was contrary to his avowed beliefs (he was a Catholic), because he acted out of love for the two women, and he judged that the consequence of his actions would be good. He priced his human existence below the value of being freed of conflicting social interests.

Greene thus nicely sets the contemporary moral problem as the choice between basing actions . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
St. Louis

From the Department of Surgery, St. Louis University.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication April 14, 1972.

President's Address, read before the 29th annual meeting of the Central Surgical Association, Chicago, March 3, 1972.

Reprint requests to Department of Surgery, St. Louis University, 1325 S Grand Blvd, St. Louis 63104 (Dr. Willman).

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