Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: autonomy

  • The sanctity of blood: Jehovah’s Witnesses and bloodless medicine

    Margo A. PeytonBaltimore, Maryland, United States Tammy said that her throat looked like that of a bullfrog croaking on an August night. At her local emergency room, her blood pressure was 240/40 mmHg due to profound aortic valve insufficiency complicated by an aortic aneurysm. Her condition necessitated high-risk cardiac surgery, a procedure that carries the…

  • Bones and Bots: what classic science fiction tells us about contemporary medicine

    Greg BeattyBellingham, Washington, United States In the original Star Trek, the real Star Trek, there were several major recurring characters. There was of course James Tiberius Kirk, Captain of the Enterprise, the ever conflicted Vulcan first officer Mr. Spock, the charmingly clichéd Scottish engineer “Scotty,” and of course the chief medical officer Dr. Leonard “Bones”…

  • Are we gorging on autonomy?

    Oliver William Morriss Cambridge, England   Ulysses and the Sirens 1891, John William Waterhouse. The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia     A potentially fatal crisis in the contemporary world threatens the very foundations of public health, in that what were formerly known as “diseases of affluence,” namely stroke, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, have…

  • Medical Autonomy and Vaccines: A Kantian Imperative

    Justin M Le Blanc Philadelphia, United States   Image courtesy of Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images [email protected] http://wellcomeimages.org In The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Kant seeks to establish a concept of duty based solely on reason. He believed that one must not just act in “accordance with duty . . .” but…

  • Breathless: philosophical lessons from respiratory illness

    Havi Carel United Kingdom   It is 12:28. I have just parked my car in a lucky empty space just outside my office. I have a meeting at 12:30. I am texting with one hand and feeling for my inhaler in my coat pocket with the other. I pull the inhaler out, place it in…

  • The Lady Writer and the Valkyrie: Magda Szabo’s novel The Door

    Carol Levine New York, New York, United States   Mixed media painting “Nickels and Dimes I” by Natalie Avondet. Used by permission of the artist. An old woman desperately needs medical attention. Yet she fiercely refuses every offer of help from friends, neighbors, and the local doctor. No one will get past her door, she vows.…