“If we can bring in some light, the darkness will not overcome the light, and that’s where faith is. We believe that,” says Lyn Lusi, who has spent her professional life in medical care for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The whole system is greased to pay hospitals and others for expensive things people might not even want” at the end of life, says Dr. Lachlan Forrow, director of ethics and palliative care at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.

“It’s impossible not to ration, it’s irrational not to ration, and it’s unethical not to ration” medical care at the end of life, says this Harvard Medical School ethics professor.

Expensive cancer-fighting drugs are sparking ethical debate about the tremendous costs and limited benefits of some new treatments.

The vocation of healing is a central theme in the acclaimed novel "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese, who writes that doctors "must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. But it can also deepen the wound."

"Patients require that one-on-one encounter, the Samaritan function of being a physician," says writer and Stanford Medical School professor Abraham Verghese. "When the physician examines the patient, this is an incredibly important ritual."

This medical anthropologist and scholar became the primary caregiver for his wife after she was afflicted with a neurodegenerative disorder.

"You cannot understand caregiving unless you do it," says Arthur Kleinman. "Acts of caregiving come as close to what I think religion is as I could name."

If you are a patient who is poor, says this doctor-nun, "sometimes in this society you're taught not to care about yourself…You're denigrated. You're just not an important person."

The vocation of healing is a central theme in the acclaimed novel "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese, who writes that doctors "must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. But it can also deepen the wound."