Humanities Medical Field

Ethics play an integral and necessary part in our lives. An individual’s course of action is dictated by which ethical model they adhere to. Ethics answers the question, "What do I do?" It is the study of right and wrong. “At a more fundamental level, it is the method by which we categorize our values and pursue them. Do we pursue our own happiness, or do we sacrifice ourselves to a greater cause? Is that foundation of ethics based on the Bible, or on the very nature of man himself, or neither?” (Hursthouse, 2012)

A physician, just like the healers of the past, are concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Similarities still exist in that the medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic science based disciplines underlying diseases and their treatment – the science of medicine – and also a decent competence in its applied practice – the art or craft of medicine.

For as long as I could remember, I have seen my father rushing to the hospital in a white coat, answering pagers in the middle of important family conversations and attending night calls even in the most terrible weather. I had always wondered; what could be so important that it belittles every other responsibility in his life. It was only after many years of anguish and protests that it finally made sense to me. This defining moment of realization occurred when I first met a patient in his office. I saw how the gratitude in the patient’s eyes can provide a sense of fulfillment that triumphs all other feelings in the universe. It was human life that was most important. Being a doctor does not make you a mere healer but also gives you the responsibility of a caregiver. I had never felt more proud of my father and that was the day I felt the urge to relive this feeling many times over. It was there in that moment that I decided to pursue a career in medicine.

A physician must be well rounded in a variety of fields to provide effective care. First, an interest in learning scientific knowledge must be accompanied by the ability to translate that knowledge into methods of treatment. Because science is constantly changing and improving, a physician should be continuously expanding their scientific learning within and outside of their respective fields. Most of the coursework that I have taken reflects my interest in the intersection between biomedical science and its applications through an anthropological lens. For example, I have performed public

The more that we study the human body and learn more about it the greater our medical knowledge will become. Furthering the education of health and medicine benefits everyone. Without continuing the education of the human body the less we will accomplish. 100 years into the future medication will be a thing of the past. That’s why it’s important to learn about how the advancement of medicine, surgery, and technology have benefited our culture. Soon we will be able to say that we have the cure to alzheimer's, cancer, and

The following will describe an ethical issue in my own area of study as well as provide a moral response. It will be inclusive of two moral theories might respond to the issue and provide an explanation of how the principles contained in a code of ethics for my discipline relate to the issue.

What excites me most about the medical humanities program is that it encompasses the actual knowledge utilize in healthcare today. Medicine is not solely about memorizing chemical formulas, drugs, or the origins of diseases. Medicine is about combining the knowledge of these aspects with knowledge about people and being able to manipulate this information for the context depending on the environment. Furthermore, I am extremely interested in anthropology and even more cultural anthropology. As a matter of fact, cultural anthropology is related to the subject of my current study about how geographic location, ethnic origin, or race impacts the importance of healthcare.

It is narrow minded and myopic to think that only the sciences are prerequisite in producing compassionate, learned doctors. Some of the most respected physicians and scientists are as knowledgeable and engaged in Shakespeare and Mozart as they are in the anatomy of the human body or the chemistry of DNA.

I tried to start the essay talking about what is medicine, and what it means to be a doctor. After I scratched that, I tried to relate why I wanted to be a doctor to a personal experience growing up, but I continually found myself talking just about myself. The countless research hours, shadowing doctors, and volunteering in hospitals made me adept to see how medical care is run, rather than how it should be. We see medicine providing us with inspirational figures starting right from Socrates, De Bakey, Charley, Laennec etc. The stethoscope, invented by Laennec, was pioneered for its use in diagnosing various chest ailments. The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, to which De Bakey played a role in developing, provided care to civilians and troops in combat areas. One interesting fact that makes scientific overtures into the future is the application of technology derived from pursuits in sciences like chemistry and physics to medical sciences. What the human eye could not see, the microscope does it for us. As we look into the human body, the bewilderment of establishing a diagnosis is getting replaced by metanalytical reassurance. As technology progresses further, newer truths and vistas will open for us to marvel at, and study. Medical professionals should be able to pass the fruits of that knowledge to the ailing, and sick, rather than just

The Stethoscope I. Intro a. Attention Getter: According to book, Introduction to Health Occupations: Today’s Health Care Worker, by Shirley Badasch and Doreen S. Chesebro, the ancient Greeks were among the first to study the causes of diseases, and the first people to keep health records was the Egyptians. b. Revealed Object and Speaker Credibility: Medicine dates back to hundreds, thousands, of years ago. One of the tools invented was the stethoscope. The stethoscope is the optimum of representation of the medicine culture.

In medical school in India, Sarah was only taught about subjects like biology, chemistry, and anatomy, and was not exposed to the connections that the social sciences have to medicine. Due to the traditional definition of medicine, or rather, “western biomedicine” that Sarah’s medical school used, she perceived herself more as a biologist or chemist, than a doctor. However, when she ventured out of the classroom, and more into the field of medical practice, Sarah’s sense of identity was challenged. She realized that she could not be a good doctor by being solely a biologist or anatomist. She would also have to have the skills of an anthropologist, sociologist, and psychologist. In fact, in her current job, Sarah describes her role as more of a therapist than as a doctor. “Yes, I prescribe medicine and treatments,” she says, “but an important part of my job is being a counselor, and offering moral and emotional support.” Especially because Sarah works in hospice about thirty percent of the time, she believes that having good social skills, and being able to offer psychological support can help not only patients, but also their families and loved ones through difficult times. Sarah also believes that having experience learning about different cultures, societies, norms, and traditions is also a valuable asset to have as a physician because it

It is fascinating and even unbelievable to think about an advancement of medical field in the last 100 years. 50 years ago, MRI and X-ray machines were yet not very commonly used technology. Doctors were spending hours to collect pieces of a complicated puzzle, which were symptoms and some elementary tests of patients such as blood testing. Nowadays, it is quite scary to imagine how doctors were managing to investigate conditions of their patients based on words and descriptions of something so vague as pain. Those detectives of human suffer were bounded by a common ideology and an oath. Although the Oath of Hippocrates has been criticized for some ideas such as its restriction of abortion, the medical society still considers the writing

There are a variety of different ethical systems that have developed of the course of millennia. However, even though the subject has been covered so thoroughly, it is still heavily debated. The varieties of ethical systems that are in existence look at various ethical problems from different perspectives and can be applied differently in different circumstances. Because of the subjective aspects to applying ethics, they can be as much an art as they are a science. Ethics are something that must be practiced and really cannot be perfected. In this way, studying ethics is a continual process that does not really stop. This paper will argue that ethics are the most important subject that an individual can pursue.

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking. Each individual

Medicine and healing is so intertwined with religion in many ancient societies that they are often regarded as gifts bestowed upon humankind by God or other deities (14-19).1 However, the authority of religion over medicine and healing is continually challenged by progress in science and medicine. Ferngren believes that that the Enlightenment is the juncture when religion and medicine begin to separate (5).1 Religion and medicine would continue to diverge until they reach a state of complete separation. The separation and compartmentalization of religion and medicine is the current the model for Western societies (5). This paper will not-so-briefly define the present relationship between bioethics, religion, and medicine, then detail what ought the relationship be and present it in a case