World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

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Indian Rockefeller would be better than the American Rockefeller" (HS 108). In China, labor now balks at working conditions. Within the next two decades, India will most likely absorb more manufacturing jobs, and similarly will struggle with issues of justice, seeking to avoid what Gandhi lamented: "The workers in the mills of Bombay have become slaves" (HS 108).
Health Care and Education:
Health care has been an issue of great discussion in the past few years. On the one hand, advances in medical research and delivery systems have helped humans overcome countless diseases and allow for greater longevity. On the other hand, the defeat of the microbe in the past seventy five years has resulted in exponential rates of population growth, stressing the carrying capacity of the planet. Though the global trend indicates a leveling of population by mid-century, nine billion people will occupy and seize the resources of planet as never before, imperiling the viability of life systems worldwide. This comes at a great cost, economic and spiritual. For each individual to maintain health in the developed world, particularly in the United States, vast sums are expended each year, consisting of a significant percentage of the gross domestic product. From the beginning of the Christian. tradition, death is considered to be an "evil," an "enemy to be destroyed" (First Corinthians, 15:26). The rise of modern medicine ushered in medicines and technologies that allow the postponement of death. Accompanied with what has been termed the Denial of Death, what once was known as inevitable now seems unfair.
For Gandhi, growing up in an era before antibiotics and in the proximity of the Jaina community, death was not a mystery nor were extraordinary measures employed to avoid death. In fact, the tradition of fasting unto death (sallekhana/santhara) undoubtedly informed his worldview, a practice still enacted by monastic and lay Jainas worldwide today. Hence, death with dignity would be an essential part of a Gandhian approach. He considered the manner of death far more important than the avoidance of death, advocating a spiritual approach. He considered medicine to be a "parasitical profession" (62) and wrote that "Doctors have nearly unhinged us" (63). His attitude toward medicine was highly suspicious, and he regarded reliance on physicians as feeding human weakness:
How do these diseases arise? Surely by our negligence and indulgence. I over-eat. I have indigestion, I go to a doctor, he gives me medicine, I am cured, I over-eat again, and I take his pills again. Had I not taken the pills in the first instance, I would have suffered the punishment deserved by me, and I would not have over-eaten again. The doctor intervened and helped me to indulge myself. My body thereby certainly felt more at ease, but my mind became weakened. A continu
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