Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Abortion

  • Professor Bernhardi, a play by Arthur Schnitzler, M.D.

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Tug-of-war. Photo by KamPraProductions for Foreign Affairs’s production of Professor Bernhardi. Used with permission.   “A spiteful something has been fabricated out of an innocent nothing.” — Dr. Löwenstein in Professor Bernhardi       Professor Bernhardi: A Comedy in Five Acts (1912) is one of seventeen plays written by Arthur…

  • Risking it all to save strangers—remembering Gisella Perl

    Jacquline Musgrave Peoria, Arizona, United States   Dr. Gisella Perl after World War II. Source. Her hands were cracked and covered in mud and dirt as she delivered the baby, broke its little neck, closed its eyes, and buried it in a hole outside. No one would know about this baby, or the others who…

  • Notes on a first abortion

    Henry Bair  Stanford, California, United States   Mother and Child by the Sea. Johan Christian Dahl. 1830. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain. The first time I saw a late-term abortion by dilation and evacuation, I was surprised that it was a fairly minor procedure. I was to observe the termination at twenty-three weeks of…

  • Hippocrates, abortion, and cutting for stone

    John Raffensperger Fort Meyers, Florida, United States   Two methods of lithotomic position recommended by Sushruta. From Mukhopadhyaya G. The surgical instruments of the Hindus. (vol 2) Calcutta University Press 1914 pp 79 – 80 [public domain] Physicians who take The Oath of Hippocrates swear not to perform abortions or operate for bladder stones: Similarly,…

  • The evolution of attitude towards sexual health in the Netherlands

    Olga LoeberNijmegen, Netherlands Introduction The Netherlands is thought of as a progressive society compared to other countries, but this is actually a recent development. In 1885, the Neo Malthusian League (NMB) published a brochure titled: “Means to prevent large families.” Founded in 1881, NMB stated that there would be: “no improvement of the race without…

  • The missing chapter in our curriculum

    Alexandra Adams Hershey, Pennsylvania   A maternity nurse examines a pregnant patient at a rural community health center in northern Uganda. Photo by Alexandra Adams. The rural village of Paimol in northern Uganda, located four hours away from the nearest hospital.  Photo by Alexandra Adams.   A fourteen-year-old girl, large with child, presented to her community health…

  • The doctor in literature: the abortion and the abortionist

    Solomon Posen Sydney, Australia “I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.”1 “It’s an awfully simple operation.”2   The Doctor and His Patient By Jan Steen, Dutch (1626-1679) Oil on canvas, 76 x 64 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam The…