Their devotion was perhaps most evident in what they gave up to carry out their mission: Dr. Thomas L. Grams, 51, left a thriving dental practice; Dr. Karen Woo, 36, walked away from a surgeon’s salary; Cheryl Beckett, 32, had no time for courtship or marriage.

Most of all, the 10 medical workers massacred in northern Afghanistan last week — six Americans, one German, one Briton and two Afghans — sacrificed their own safety, in a calculated gamble that weighed the risk against the distribution of eyeglasses and toothbrushes, pain relief and prenatal care to remote villages they reached on foot.

Dirk Frans, the executive director of the International Assistance Mission, which organized the trip, said he had raised safety concerns about whether it was too large a group with too many foreigners in it. But, he said, the team leader, Tom Little, with 35 years’ experience in Afghanistan, had been frustrated on previous trips because he had too few hands to treat so many, Mr. Frans said.


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