Quite a few years ago, when I was a young resident in Internal Medicine, I had the opportunity to care for an 18-year-old boy - the firstborn and only son of a Saudi Arabian sheikh. The boy had a mysterious illness that we were unable to diagnosis. We devoted innumerable hours to caring for him, had many heartbreaking conversations with his father and exhausted our testing resources before this young man eventually died in the hospital. Driven by my scientific curiosity and the need to understand why we lost him, I approached this devout Muslim father to request an autopsy on his son. I was fully knowledgeable of the Islamic belief that prohibits autopsies, so his astonished reaction to my request did not surprise me. His second look, however, was different and he asked me if an autopsy would help further my education and enable me to better care for other patients. My answer was affirmative, and he made me swear I would never disclose to anyone that he had committed himself to such an act in spite of his religious beliefs. Not long ago, I learned the sheikh had passed away, so I can share this story with you. The autopsy was performed and I saw my first case of Mediterranean Lymphoma in my medical career, and I would like to think that we were able to help other people with the same disease with an earlier diagnosis.

As I reflect on this experience, the lesson I learned was that in order to engage people in a cause, we need to reach for their noblest feelings and beliefs - beliefs that transcend immediate concerns or preoccupations because all good people are highly motivated by doing the right thing for the good of other people. Good people want to feel like they have contributed to the betterment of people's lives. There is no recipe for engagement except to say that it is based on engendering trust between people and reaching for these noblest feelings.