Health Economics
Why pro bono is offered by lawyers and doctors?
Pro bono comes from the Latin term, pro bono publico,
meaning “for the public good and for the welfare of the whole”. Pro bono is a
service done for free by attorney where in this case we refer to lawyers and
doctors, which means no fee charged. Pro bono is offered by lawyers and doctors
to people with low income because it is part of their responsibility. Pro bono
play a huge role in societies that profess a commitment to equal justice under
law. According to some lawyers, if equal justice under law is a societal value,
society as a whole should bear the cost. The poor have fundamental needs for
food and medical care as counted in the Maslow hierarchy of needs. There is one
justification for pro bono work involves its benefits to lawyers individually
and collectively. They help individuals or corporations exercise the rights and
responsibilities endowed by the state. By offering their service for free, thus
they can ensure that the poor or the unfortunate have the same opportunities to
access justice as to those who can afford to pay legal services. From this we
can say that pro bono is an ethical obligation of the profession. It helps poor
people to be treated as the same as those who are affordable.
Doctors also offer pro bono to low income people. Pro bono
work in medical by doctors could help fix the healthcare system. Fees for
medicine and operation are very high, as we often read in the newspaper asking
for the generosity and kindness as well as sincerity of the society to donate
for the poor family who cannot afford the fees. For this, doctors know and
realized that it is part of their responsibility to offer pro bono to low
income family to help them reduce the burden. Patients could get treatment at a
lower cost. By doing so, the societies’ health could be enhanced. Pro bono work earns doctors the satisfaction of
contributing to their communities in a way that only doctors can. Pro bono work
is a responsibility that is not to be taken lightly, which they may save
thousands of life.
Several studies show that pro bono
does gives benefits for society. It has a positive impact on attitudes toward
the attorneys to be aware about the minority society or the people with low
income who cannot afford to pay for high fees for services, such as, medical
and justice. Therefore, with the offer of pro bono by lawyers and doctors
really help the society so that they would not being oppressed. Meanwhile, the
society can enjoy better living and improve their standard of living, upholding
justice as well as enhancing their health. Thus, pro bono is offered by the
attorneys because they believe that they have a commitment and responsibility
towards the society.
Another factor that encourage for the
profession to embrace and support pro bono is its positive impact of the
public’s perception towards the profession. Nowadays, lawyers and doctors have
become concerned about their reputation and performance of public opinion.
Therefore by doing the pro bono work, they can show the public by socially
involved and giving back benefits to the community. Recently, pro bono activities
become important among these profession (lawyer and doctor) because it can
define present themselves externally. They can use this advantage as a key
point of differentiation in the market, interest to potential clients, and also
can enable the firm or the hospital to strengthen their relationship with their
existing clients, in which this means that the pro bono activities can drive
profits or sales by getting connected with customers and demonstrating to them
that the organization is giving commitment to the community. This strategy also
can enable the profession to expand their community impact without adding
significant costs and foster innovation based on their new experiences.
By improving the relations
with public, pro bono can enhance positive perception of companies with
innovative and impactful Corporate Social Responsibility strategy and serve as
a marketing tool in attracting like-minded clients. Some potential clients may
look for the firm or the hospitals that demonstrated a commitment to community
involvement. In this current era of highly competitive environment, firms for
example, are increasingly focused on marketing their services to retain clients
and attract new ones. They are expanding their marketing staff, hiring public
relations firms and committing substantial resources to advertising and to
“branding” that will differentiates their firm from other firms. Pro bono work
can be a highly effective marketing tool because it can greater the
credibility, visibility, and improved clients relationship. Not only that,
besides improving the perception of the internal public to the company, it also
will provide good image to the external public, for example the
government. It can sustained license to operate
and directly reduce exposure to risks such as negative government decisions.
Furthermore, pro bono work
can provide the young lawyer with the training, experience and contact. By
taking the responsibility of doing the poorer people case to defend them, it
might be easier for the firm to train the young lawyer, while taking the
responsibility the young lawyer might be exposure to the real situation of the
people who are no having a good economic background to having the lawyer
service. But for the doctor profession by providing the pro bono some of the
doctors who are doing their training still can improve their skills and the
experience by giving this kind of service to their patient. If this two
professional profession doing this service both of them can learn at the same
time get the benefits from it.
Besides, it also can help the lawyer and doctor to develop
new areas of expertise and to
demonstrate the marketable skills. If the lawyer taking the responsibilities to
take in charge with the poor people cases on the court it can show that the lawyer having a good skills on handling
the problem and while handling the cases
the young lawyer might learn about
certain situation that he or she never met before this. For the doctor
if the poor people come to the treatment they might have a lot number of
patient who came to get the treatment with discount of the pro bono. So, by
having such a bigger number of patients the doctor might facing a lot kind of
illness and the doctor was trying to give service. Then by giving some types of
treatment for as different type of illness the doctor might increase their
expertise on the certain type of disease.
Despite, pro bono also provide the young lawyer and doctor
with a sense of personal satisfaction by allowing them to contribute to the
social good. Before joining the industry they were just a student who was
focusing on their studies but now after joining the industry they has to do
something with their own social responsibility towards the society around them.
By providing the pro bono service to the poor people, it is one of the ways
that the young lawyer can contribute to the society and help them in certain
cases that the society cannot put an effort to pay for the cost. Same goes to the doctors who are providing
the medical treatment. Some people might get help from the insurance or any
government subsidize but it is different with the poor people. So, when they
want to get a treatment some of the hospital or clinic doctor might give
discount service with their pro bono. By giving pro bono it is one of the
contributions to the society to help the poor people.
No comments:
Post a Comment