Renowned physcian, global health care activist Paul Farmer dies at 62
World-renowned physician and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer died of an acute cardiac event in his sleep on February 21. He was 62.
Farmer, who is credited with helping to improve health-care equity around the globe, was deeply influenced by his Catholic faith and by liberation theology in particular. He maintained a close friendship with Gustavo Gutiérrez, the Peruvian Catholic priest credited with creating liberation theology, and carried a “preferential option for the poor”—a core liberation theology concept—into all of his work, even at secular institutions.
In a 1995 essay for America magazine, Farmer wrote that liberation theology provides both a challenge and an insight for medical professionals.
