Henry Norman Bethune, MD (March 3, 1890 – November 12, 1939) was a Canadian physician, medical innovator, and humanitarian. In Chinese he is known as "Bai Qiu-en"

Biography

Dr. Bethune was born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada. After graduating from the University of Toronto as a doctor he moved to Montreal where he was associated with McGill University and taught thoracic surgery. Bethune was an early proponent of universal health care, the success of which he observed during a visit to the Soviet Union. As a doctor in Montréal, Bethune frequently sought out the poor and gave them free medical care. As a thoracic surgeon, he travelled to Spain (1936-1937) and China (1938-1939) to perform battlefield surgical operations on war casualties.

Bethune's work in Spain in developing mobile medical units was the model for the later development of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units. The need to provide blood transfusions in a battlefield context led him to develop the first practical method for transporting blood.

Bethune died on November 12, 1939, of blood poisoning from a cut he received while performing surgery, while with the Communist Party of China's Eighth Route Army in the midst of the second Sino-Japanese War.

Motivations

The Communist Party of Canada (CPC) asserts that Bethune, who joined the party in 1935, acted out of devotion to the Chinese socialist movement. Some in the West, however, have been highly skeptical to the notion and generally believe the doctor's motivation was exclusively based on humanitarian considerations. The fact remains that Bethune went to Spain soon after joining the CPC to help in the struggle against fascism, and then went to China to help the Communists there against Japanese imperialism. It is also noted in his most recent biography, The Politics of Passion by Larry Hannant, that he specifically refused to work under the better-off Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalist government and insisted on helping the Chinese Communists instead. He is the only Westerner to have a statue in Communist China, and also has a hospital and a medical school named in his honour.

Memory

Virtually unknown in his homeland during his lifetime, Doctor Bethune finally received international recognition as Chairman Mao Zedong of the People's Republic of China published his essay entitled In Memory of Norman Bethune (original Chinese title : 紀念白求恩), which documented the final months of the doctor's life in China. Mao went ahead and made the essay required reading for the entire Chinese population. Mao concluded in that essay: We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man's ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.

Bethune College at York University, and Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute (a secondary school) in Scarborough, Ontario, were named after Dr. Bethune. Heroic statues of Bethune have been erected throughout China.

Doctor Bethune also invented several surgical instruments that still bear his name.

Donald Sutherland played Bethune in two biographical films: Bethune (1977), made for television on a low budget, and Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990). The latter was a co-production of Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, FR3 TV France and China Film Co-production.

In March 1990, to commemorate the centenary of his birth, Canada and China each issued two postage stamps of the same design in his honour.

In 1998 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

In the CBC's The Greatest Canadian program in 2004, he was voted the 26th Greatest Canadian by viewers.

He attended Owen Sound Collegiate in Owen Sound, Ontario, now known as Owen Sound Collegiate And Vocational Institute. He graduated from OSCVI in 1911 along with William Avery "Billy" Bishop. Both names are inscribed on the School's Great War Memorial.

He is buried in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, where his tomb along with that of Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis lie next to great memorials and statues to their honour. His ideals and teachings were instrumental in the formation and growth of the Medical College Democratic Students Association.

See also

• James Gareth Endicott
• Dwarkanath Kotnis

External links

• In Memory of Norman Bethune by Mao Zedong
• Biographical Note in Canadian Heirloom Collection
• Bethune Memorial House National Historic Site of Canada
• Posters of Bethune
• Bethune Institute
• CBC Digital Archives - 'Comrade' Bethune: A Controversial Hero

1890 births | 1939 deaths | Canadian Medical Hall of Fame | Canadian military people | Canadian historical figures | Canadian humanitarians | Canadian physicians | Canadian communist politicians | Foreigners in China | History of China | Military physicians | Non-Chinese known by Chinese names | Muskokans | Spanish Civil War people | University of Toronto alumni

Norman Bethune | Norman Bethune | Norman Bethune | Norman Bethune | 諾爾曼·白求恩