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James Maskalyk's experience as a doctor in Sudan

Canadian physician James Maskalyk on why he left a comfortable teaching job to work for Médecins Sans Frontières in Sudan.

James Maskalyk

Photo: Michael Banasiak

"While I was working in Sudan, Elsa Serfass was killed. She was working for MSF in the Central African Republic. When I heard the news about Elsa, it didn’t make me worry so much about myself as much as about her family, and how tragic the circumstances are. It made me more convinced of the injustices of what is happening in this part of Africa that enables these kinds of tragedies. It made me realize how remarkable my colleagues at MSF were that in the pursuit of peace they were willing to risk their own lives. It made me understand that there’s great worth in this work.

"Many times I’ve thought, Why do people want to do this work? I’ve looked into evolutionary biology and genetic explanations of altruism to discover why I do this work. Do I want to impress someone? Do I just like the adventure? Why is it worth our time, worth the life of someone like Elsa? One way to look at it is to see ourselves as a collection of genes, aiming to reproduce. In that view, it makes genetic sense to throw myself at a grenade in a crowded room if I know there will be more copies of my specific genetic code that are likely to be reproduced in my cousins. For a rationalist, this makes sense, but such a mathematical look at reality doesn’t fit in my view of the world—and it surely doesn’t explain why someone like Elsa died, someone who was working for people who could not be more distant cousins. We can’t explain the good work she was doing by reducing our acts of humanity as if they have to do with reproducing. Once you experience doing such work, you can see it goes beyond all rational explanation, and that it’s just what you’re compelled to do.

"Suppose you’re walking the streets of a poor country with a treatment for malaria in your pocket—you don’t have malaria—and you pass someone on the side of the road who has malaria and who’s feverish. Would you give him that treatment? I think for most people the answer is yes. We’re just part of that greater thing that is life, and all life wants is to go on. Life wants to explore this ecological niche on Earth; it wants us to take care of each other; it wants us to make sure life goes on. This is life caring for itself, and that’s why we do it."

Interview by Marco Visscher, who is too busy as Ode’s managing editor to take six months off.

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