INTRODUCTION
A physician once argued that he belonged to the first profession because the surgical procedure of removing a rib from Adam to create Eve took place shortly after Creation. A lawyer replied by noting that before God created the universe there was chaos and asked the physician who he thought might be responsible for this condition. Upon further consideration, the physician admitted that perhaps his was the second profession.
The competitive-cooperative relationship between these two learned professions is often the subject of humor, mockery, and derision; while at the same time there is toward these same professions a feeling of respect, honor, and even envy. In the current popular polls, doctors rank relatively high and lawyers relatively low, but it was not always this way. These professions each speak strongly as to an essential ingredient of being human. The story of their struggle and development is parallel with frequent interactions and similarities . . . enough to allow for a comparative history and commentary.
The pursuit of knowledge and understanding of reality involves the act of synthesizing of opposites. Man becomes woman and chaos becomes order in the examples above. A lawyer practices law, but thrives on lawlessness. The physician preaches health, but practices on illness. When talking about the beginnings, the end of something else is implied. In this historical account of the learned professions of law and medicine, the beginnings are as early as man himself. But when was this? The Bible places humanity at around 6000 years, but scientists who believe in evolution know it is much older. Yet both theories can be true and harmonious if the interpretation of one word in the Bible is altered from convention. This process is akin to a legal contract whose entire interpretation hinges on the definition of one word or even the placement of a comma!
Genesis states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." There are some scholars that maintain the "was" in the second sentence is more accurately translated as "became" and that the true interpretation of the second sentence is more accurately translated from the original Hebrew as meaning "And it came to pass that the earth became a wasteland, empty, and chaotic." With this substitution and allowing for the millions of years between sentence one and two of Genesis which scientists have hypothesized, there is no longer any discrepancy. This is a prerequisite for the historical perspective that will be propounded.
Lawyers and physicians are also, in a sense, a synthesis of opposites. There has traditionally been a love-hate relationship between the two, which is especially notable in modern times. Lawyers are talkers; physicians are doers. Both help some, but are capable also of inflicting great hurt. Their standards when applied to others may be higher than they themselves can practice or adhere to. Throughout history, both lawyers and physicians have been admired on the on hand and despised on the other. Just as stated about the sexes, "you can't live with them; you can't live without them."
These two professions, medicine and law, have been culturally ingrained into our societies. Today in the United States these professions have power, economic clout, and widespread influence. How did they come to be so powerful? What forces of history made this so? These cultural aspects are not genetic, but are a product of the historical development of man and society. Imitated behavior or "memes" have been and are now the forces determining the shape of society. It may have taken hundreds of thousands of years for man to discover fire, iron, or agriculture. But now change is exponential and accelerates more rapidly every year in this age of near-universal communication. Discussion of man's humble beginnings should precede any further applaud.
