Out of all the possible professions for young people to choose from, healthcare jobs are some of the most demanding. Doctor and nurses must work long, exhausting hours, all while balancing the lives of the various patients that come to them for help. They also provide some of the most rewarding work imaginable in return. The warm gratitude expressed by a patient brought back from the edge of death can make all the fear and stress worth it for a doctor. As valuable as the medical field is, it is not without it's share of darkness lurking beneath it's surface. After all, skilled though they may be, doctors are still only human.

Practicing medicine requires doctors to adhere to an ethics code: autonomy, justice, non-maleficence, and beneficence. In summary, a doctor must *do no harm*. However, medicine is a career that requires doctors to work with all different kinds of people from all different walks of life. As we all know, when there's flawed human beings involved, nothing is as clear-cut as it first appears.

Give My Regards To Black Jack, similarly to the classic manga from which it takes its name, is a commentary on the various inadequacies of the Japanese medical system. It also explores the various ethical dilemmas that doctors are faced with every day. "Do I give expensive treatments to a patient who has only a slim chance at recovery?" and "Should I tell a cancer patient that their days are numbered?" are just some of the difficult questions that doctors must ask themselves if they are to offer the best choices to their patients. Every person is different, as is their individual situations. Nothing is absolute. Sometimes doctors have to make hard decisions for the good of the patient.

The manga's protagonist is Eijirou Saito, an idealistic medical student fresh out of school and ready to take his place in the sterile battlefield. He is nothing like your typical shounen protagonist, nor is he like a typical seinen protagonist either. He has no special talent for surgery, or heavy influence to wield for the greater good. All he has is an innate ability to empathize with any patient down to the tiniest infant in the NICU, and a deeply ingrained inability to turn a blind eye to the numerous injustices that corrode the Japanese medical system.

The story follows Saito as he takes his two year internship. He soon learns that saving patients is not the only agenda on the minds of the other doctors. Many of them are motivated by ambition and greed. Others simply turn a blind eye to the blatant corruption. They don't ignore it because they want to, but because they've given up hope that there's a way to purge it. His unyielding idealism causes him time and again to butt heads with the older, more experienced doctors. However, no matter how much he infuriates his superiors, he always leaves them with a stark reminder of just why they became doctors in the first place.

Brave and stubborn though he may be, Saito is still only an intern. He has no power to change the system, only the power to resist it. His helplessness and frustration are powerful enough to be felt beyond the pages of the manga. However, he is not completely helpless. What he can do is change the lifes of the patients that come under his care. He risks his career time and again, all to ensure that his patients have the best chance of someday walking out of the hospital on their own two feet.

The story is cut up into three different arcs. Each one takes place in a different department, so every arc is fresh and unique. It offers the opportunity for the reader to see the strengths and weakness of a variety of disciplines. Working in a hospital brings you up close and personal with the lives of other people. As a result of dealing with sick people who have potentially hit their lowest points, you'll see a lot of ugly, depressing situations. This manga doesn't pull any punches when depicting these things. Patients don't always pull through. Sometimes, there's nothing that the doctors can do for a patient. All they can do is make the painful decision to let them go.

This manga shook me to my core. It made me cry bitter tears for a life cut short; it made me clench my fist in anger at the injustice of a doctor who cared more for his social status than his patient's wellbeing; it made me explode into raucous cheers for Saito's small, yet precious victories on his patient's behalf. Above all, it made me thank the heavens for people like Saito. People who never give up on those around them, and never lose respect for their fellow man.