Ethical Issues and Limitations in Medical Volunteering

Noelle Sullivan, a medical anthropologist and global health studies faculty member at Northwestern University, spoke on ethical issues and limitations in medical volunteering. Drawing on about 1,700 hours of ethnographic fieldwork in six Tanzanian health facilities since 2011, plus interviews with foreign volunteers and Tanzanian health professionals, she described how for-profit volunteer placement organizations market unregulated clinical experiences to unqualified students. She discussed Teju Cole's "white savior industrial complex," reversed the scenario to test its absurdity, and offered alternatives centered on listening, long-term partnership and amplifying local priorities. An extended audience Q&A followed.