Centenary and Innovative Surgeon. Bioethics Promoter
He was an advanced surgeon at his time, operated on wounded on the military front and knew the professional vacuum suffered by those who did not win the war. The life of Mois ( s Broggi (Barcelona, 1908) has been intense, but he has always taken care of framing it in a humble, cultured, generous and easily accessible attitude. So it remains. It shows in peace, relaxed happily and calmly.
Since he passed the 100 years do not stop paying tributes.
Well, I'm finishing my life and I'm excited to think of myself.
- On what note the passing of the years?
- With the age, the mind has been growing to me and the body diminishing. I have more and more accumulated memories, but the body defends itself worse. It decreases muscle strength, sight, hearing ... in the end there will be nothing left of me. I am sure that now a cold lies down to me, but my nervous tissue and my brain are improving, because of the interrelation I make of past things.
- Is this how the brain is preserved?
–It keeps thinking. Non-stop. I'm interested in things. I am convinced that if I sat in a chair without doing anything interesting, I would stay there forever. Life is like riding a bicycle: if you stop, you fall. If I did not read and write daily, if I had no illusion and thought about doing this and that, I would go out. The illusion is regenerated with effort.
–He has a whole century in his mind.
-A century. Many changes. I will turn 102 in April. At the beginning of the 20th century, the world had 1, 000 million inhabitants; Now we are 6, 000 million. There are more people and the inequality is increasing. The places with more population are those that have more misery. That creates violence. I remember all this every day.
- Do you have a method to remember?
- Evoking. I think of a thing from the past that I have saved, and related memories come back to me. By association One fact drags another. And many things are repeated.
–They repeat.
-Yes. Humanity is not fixed. Keep doing the same as always: the powerful dominate those who are not. And they exploit them. Selfishness beats altruism, and is the source of all problems. It is fatal.
- What attitude is essential to live in peace with oneself?
-Respect to others. I have lived happy moments and unhappy moments. Who lives from fun to fun is wrong. We have to go through misfortunes to understand those of others. If not, you cannot have compassion or put yourself in the place of those who suffer. There is an ancient Egyptian saying that sentences are the best preparation for death. And you have to be prepared.
– Do you consider yourself prepared?
-Yes. It is what touches me now. Death is a mystery, just like life. I am aware that I am over 100 years old, but that is nothing. Life is very short. Even the things that excite you most, wealth and power, end right away. In the end, you only have what you are.
-You are a doctor.
-General Surgeon. I finished the race at 23 years old. At 28 I was one of the founders of the emergency department of the Hospital Clínic and when the International Brigades came I worked with them. I did very well, because I saw the misfortunes of war. Young people who died. I worked in France and in Britain, I learned new techniques. I was lucky.
- That was the veto to practice in the Spanish Social Security.
- Yes, because it was necessary to certify that he was addicted to the glorious Movement, and could not. He had a very good record.
- And then he was the personal doctor of many Catalan families: the Trias, the Maragalls, the Pujol ...
-Yes. At the end of the war, as I was one of those who had lost, they threw me out of hospitals and universities. These families, on the other hand, trusted doctors like me.
- Is it considered religious?
-Yes. I believe in the unknown. The world is not understood without a universal spirit, without religion. How do you explain that the stars always travel around the sun, with fantastic regularity, without a force that orders everything? It is impossible.
–You are a scientist.
- Yes, but science does not explain everything. Science understands the material, what can be measured, but it does not happen from there. It does not explain what animates matter. We, for example, are subject to a vital rhythm: we go from childhood to youth, to old age, to death ... Everything is planned, but we don't know why or how. That which does not explain science is religion. Including the idea of infinity.
- What would you say is infinity?
–It is impossible to explain things without infinity. Infinity cannot be demonstrated, but neither can it be demonstrated that infinity does not exist. Not everything that cannot be demonstrated means that it does not exist.
