Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Spring 2016

  • Defining Death in Whose Life is it Anyway?

    Morven Cook United Kingdom Death itself is a social construct, and in a pluralistic society such as ours, a conclusive definition of death, or determination of the moment of death, is out of reach of both medical science and philosophy.1 Brian Clark’s Whose Life is it Anyway? is a play that tells the story of Ken,…

  • Going boldly into the night: A reflection on “death with dignity”

    Lenore M. MontanaroNorth Kingstown, Rhode Island Doctors should minimize one’s suffering at death and uphold the patient’s right to bodily integrity and self-determination. If someone with decisional capacity is diagnosed with a terminal illness such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”), Alzheimer’s Disease, or Multiple Sclerosis, to list a few, especially if the diseases…

  • Compassion and the art of medicine

    Michael VassalloBournemouth, United Kingdom Is medicine an art or a science? As a medical student embarking on a journey, the answer seemed obvious. I was one of a unanimous chorus of students confidently claiming science as the answer to this trick question. My mum, however, told me “to be kind and smile, appearing serious or…

  • The Holocaust as end stage disease: medical education as a moral imperative

    Hedy S. WaldSheldon RubenfeldJoseph J. Fins “Medicine was used for villainous ends during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was an enormous trauma inflicted on human dignity and the human person; medicine was implicated in crimes against humanity.”—His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houstona Introduction While few would contest the importance of educating health care professionals about…

  • Rosalyn Yalow: Opinions and actions

    Maja NowakowskiBrooklyn, New York, United States “Peer-review process cannot possibly support truly original research because, by definition, an original thinker has no peers.” Anyone who had even a brief conversation with Rosalyn Yalow will recognize her profound insight and bold judgment. These were not idle words: Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, the second woman ever to win…

  • A culpable culture: underlying factors in obesity among Hispanic women

    Sarah BahrIndianapolis, Indiana, USA The modern obesity epidemic is an extensive, and growing, problem worldwide. According to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that the obesity rate doubled among adults and the number of overweight children tripled between 1982 and 2002 (Fisler and Warden 473). And…

  • The Lawnmower

    Rachel H. KowalskyNew York, New York, USA This is how the phone call went: “I’ve got a kid here, run over by a lawnmower. He’s got some deep lacerations. I gotta send him over to Children’s.” The child’s vital signs were worrisome—a fast heart rate, a borderline blood pressure. “OK,” I said, grabbing a pen.…

  • Why connection matters: Understanding patients’ illness by understanding their reality

    Julius KremlingBochum, Germany On the construction of reality and its medical implications Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann will be long remembered for having authored the widely acclaimed book The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. In this jewel of sociology they argue that there is not just one reality…

  • Quickly now, where does it hurt?

    Chris SumbergClinton, Tennessee, United States In Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain chronicled his difficult apprenticeship as a steamboat captain, relating his transition from simple observer who admires the beauty of the Mississippi River to designated protector of passengers and property, one who views eddies of water not as beautiful things in themselves but as…

  • Doctor on an expedition to the Antarctic

    Bryan WalpoleHobart, Tasmania It is 0330, half an hour before change of watch. The sun low in the southeast glares painfully onto the bridge. Here at sixty-two degrees south icebergs abound, radar looks like a polka dot quilt, and a continuous layer of pancake ice with nasty growlers on the surface and a two meter…