According to the agreements made by the United States in the Geneva Convention, all wounded persons are to be given equal regard in terms of treatment: friend, innocent, and enemy alike. In practice, this can be a difficult matter for a soldier and medical provider to reconcile internally. The patient you are fighting to save may have been responsible for ending the lives of many others, including your friends and comrades. Despite this moral and emotional quandary, I have seen honor in many soldiers who provided life-saving medical attention to enemy combatants who only moments before had tried to kill them. In my mind, we must take our faith in a greater good, and not let the petty evils of humanity overcome us. It is no easy task. But when I look past it, and see a man lying broken before me, he is still a human being, and I do not believe it is my place to judge him. I only pray that what I do is right.
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