Why We Have Hospitals

Is it because of our Christian culture or just simple human instinct?

From Soutra Aisle, Scotland, courtesy of Pixabay

There are numerous things around us which we just take for granted.

Take hospitals for example. You may think it obvious that if someone gets sick or needs urgent medical attention such places, staffed with expert practitioners, should exist to meet this very basic human need.

But why? Why do we just assume that these places should exist?

At the most basic level, you could claim that this is an example of our need for survival as a species. But animal survival is not normally extended to those we don’t know and perhaps don’t even like, or who may be a threat to our own individual success in life or ability to procreate. And yet, we see care of the sick as a basic human right for which we happily pay taxes in one form or another.

In nature, this would simply not happen. Apart from a few notable exceptions in the animal kingdom, most animals live until something goes physically wrong. If they can’t sort out the problem themselves, well, it’s curtains. There may be advantages to keeping a member of the tribe/group alive, but is this a universal truth? Most animals who are injured or who are being carried by the others are either abandoned, picked off by predators or simply choose self-imposed exile and death for themselves.