The Doctor's Dilemma
When a renowned physician discovers a revolutionary cure for tuberculosis, he faces an impossible choice: save a virtuous but penniless doctor, or save a brilliantly talented artist whose cruelty and moral bankruptcy are matched only by his genius. The catch: the doctor has fallen for the artist's wife, and there's a lucrative private practice to consider. This is Shaw at his most mischievous and most merciless. The Doctor's Dilemma dissects the sacred cow of medical ethics with scalpel-sharp wit, exposing the comfortable fictions we tell ourselves about altruism, merit, and the value of human life. At its core, the play asks who deserves to live and why we pretend the answer isn't tangled with money, status, and plain old desire. It's a problem play offering no easy solutions, only the uncomfortable pleasure of watching certainty dissolve into rationalization.
Editions
X-Ray
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.””
— Bernard Shaw
“it’s always the patient who has to take the chance when an experiment is necessary. And we can find out nothing without experiment.””
— Bernard Shaw
“Walpole has no intellect. A mere surgeon. A wonderful operator but, after all, what is operating? . . . . Manual labour.””
— Bernard Shaw
“Well, I've known over thirty men who've found out how to cure consumption. Why do people go on dying of it, Colly? Devilment I suppose!””
— Bernard Shaw
“Science is always simple and always profound. It is only the half-truths that are dangerous. Ignorant faddists pick up some superficial information about germs; and they write to the papers and try to discredit science.””
— Bernard Shaw
