Bioethics 101

I'm taking two courses this term. The first is a weekly lecture series by several members of faculty on a variety of subjects.

The second is my main course, Foundations of Bioethics. We cover the predominant schools of thought found in the field. This includes theological approaches, secular approaches -principalism, contractualism, Virtue Ethics, communitarianism, casuistry, feminist and care ethics, hermeneutical and phenomeological, narritive ethics, and pragmatism.

Cartoon idea brewing on the "lesser schools of bioethics" ...

More on class projects (non-cartoon, turned in for actual credit) later.

Toguri Mercantile

'Nuff said.

Hope and Help

On a gorgeous weather day last Thursday, walking from my desperately needed yet dreaded root canal to school, I passed the International Museum of Surgical Science on Lake Shore Drive. This statue stands in front of the museum.



I guess the oral surgeon did, as described by the engraving at the base of the statue, give me hope - that the pain could end - and help - he ended the pain by performing his procedure. While I was suffering through my dental woes, I thought often about the centuries of misery caused by small and large dental problems. I was focused on the Middle Ages, but real dental hope and help wasn't even a reality for this guy, who I also passed in that same walk.



The Surgical Museum has always been a great venue for Medical Humanities. When I was in nursing school, I saw an exhibit of anatomical art by Frank Netter, who was the first artist to illustrate medical and surgical procedures as they happened.

Their current exhibits are no less fascinating. One shows the work of Matthew Cox, featuring embroidered x-rays.

Abscessing

It took 32 years for this abscess to develop. And it had to come to fruition the first week of graduate school.

When I was eight, a kid hit into me in the swimming pool. That tooth was somewhere between my mouth and my hand and my jaw was broken. The dentist saved the tooth, but apparently it was the beginning of the end.

But I did manage to keep up on homework.