Objectification And Personhood Of Cadavers

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

In the essay Defending My Life, author Geov Parrish tells the narrative of his personal experience with the medical field and healthcare industry regarding life-saving organ transplants in which he underwent. Throughout his narrative he brings up many key issues present in current day medicine that relate well to our BEST medical curriculum. The first issue involves behaviorial aspects of medicine and the importance of the patient’s perspective in care. The next issue involves the social and ethical dilemmas relating to the cost of healthcare and adequate access to proper care.

In the book Stiff, cadavers are used in different areas and kinds of research. As I read, I was surprised to see that there were so many unique ways that cadavers are used. The most surprising thing that I read was that cadavers were used as art. This book was not only interesting, but enlightening as well. It is unbelievable how useful cadavers have been in helping the living in so many different ways.

Selzer’s The Exact Location of the Soul captures the essence of being a physician by using first person point of view, a series of personal anecdotes, and such striking imagery.

Lisa Belkin is a women of her words. Ms. Belkin crammed all feelings imaginable into one book. Just as things seemed to be looking up for the patients involved she threw in a twist just within the next statement. This book is an emotional rollercoaster on all levels, but it was an abundant read. Lisa Belkin’s book is full of ethical dilemmas, provocative insights, indescribable doctor-patient/doctor-coworker relationships, and further more. “First, do no harm” is a principal in medical ethics its self. Medical staff are supposed to abide by the 4 principles of medical ethics, autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence. Non-maleficence within its self means do no harm (which is the title of the book). The content of this book is based

The human body has been coupled with various beliefs for all of history. It has been the centre and representation for questions of ethics, power and sexuality. Works like “Confession” by Linh Dinh have found ways to express these questions further. By focusing on questioning how the body operates in art, Dihn portrays and inquires a whole belief system as to how the body functions and is viewed in society.

The movie “The Doctor” captures the shortcomings of a mechanized health care industry. Dr. Jack McKee is a gifted, however, arrogant, and self centered surgeon who cares little about the emotional welfare of his patients; treating them with a callous attitude, and examining them as specimen. Out of the four models of physician/patient relationship, Dr. McKee exemplified the Paternalistic model, the least ideal model for physician/patient interactions. He makes decisions for the patient

One way the board encourages the readers is by using emotional appeals. Throughout this editorial, they make the audience feel safe. The editorial board goes on to say, “ Likewise, the strict surgical standards

In the article “Displacing Suffering: The Reconstruction of Death in North American and Japan”, Margaret Lock’s discusses her thesis, which is to bring forward the disputes between “death” and organ transplants as conceptualized by the North American and Japanese cultures (210). The main point that she makes lies within each culture’s definition of “death”, the kinds of implications they carry, and how they impact their societies’ approaches to organ transplants. The subject of organ transplants is much broader of a topic than it initially seems, especially since the conceptualization of death determines how a culture may react to a situation where it is up to a single surgeon to determine one’s life or death. There exist many problems with organ transplants (such as legal issues, philosophical disputes, and emotional distraught), let alone the ethical disagreements concerning life and death between these two cultures of Lock’s focus.

Although grave robbing was not as large an issue after the passing of the Anatomy Act, the field still had its darkest times ahead. During the 19th and early 20th century, anatomists took advantage of the most disadvantaged sections of society including the mentally ill, people of color and poor immigrants (Cutter 2002, Halperin 2007). While these atrocities are worth remembering, anatomy truly reached its lowest point during the regime of the National Socialist Party. Corpses from concentration camps, mental facilities, and prisons were all sent to aid in research and teaching (Kaiser 2013). Throughout history, anatomists have put their morals aside for the sake of scientific advancement, but it is clear that this reached its most inexcusable

The field of medicine has been constantly progressing through the centuries with surgery, as one of its most fundamental structure of medicine. Cutting people open to find the harm and relieving them of it. But as the field of surgery progress over time; the surgical environment has developed a gender sphere that makes it difficult for women to become surgeons. The glass ceiling is a political metaphor that exists to explain the gender disadvantages within disciplined jobs (The Glass Ceiling Effect*). Women today, regardless of their qualifications face an obstacle that “appear[s] to be a distinctively gender phenomenon” (1) in any highly disciplined jobs, especially in the field of surgery.

The doctor and his patient portray a troubled encounter that is subject to discussion. This short story reflects real or plausible issues comparable in real life. One example of such an event in Brooklyn when a construction worker filed a lawsuit against a hospital for subjecting him to a rectal exam against his wishes. According to his lawyer, the man begged,”please don’t do that’’ as he was held down, and he punched one of the doctors before being sedated and examined without consent. As a result the man allegedly developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the experience.(Tsai,1) Given to the poor man’s circumstance and how the medical professionals treated him, you can now see how unfit doctors can be to their own patients.

One might think of surgery as simple as going to the hospital and receiving a complex operation that saves ones life or improves their quality of life. What most people do not realize is the hardships that those people go through unless they had surgery performed on them themselves, and same thing for the surgeons it is not easy for them as well, even though they are professional and highly trained.

For the next 50 years, donating one’s body for scientific cadaver use would become more acceptable and commonplace. However, it wasn’t until 1882 that a medical institution, the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons, would offer a curriculum that incorporated cadaver dissection (Perry & Kuehn, 2006). It wouldn’t be until 1918 that an organization, The Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois, would manage the body donation program for medical research and educational institutions (The Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois, 2013).

This article holds that under certain circumstances, people should be allowed to donate their body parts to those who are in need. Three metaphors are presented to support the thesis. The gift metaphor holds that there is a general consensus that the body is a gift hence it is morally acceptable to donate them to people in need as a gift. The resource metaphor states that the state, authorities and the medical fraternity tend to perceive the body as a resource. The commodity metaphor holds that body organs are acutely scarce a situation that creates an extremely high demand from potential donors who are equally desperate to donate them to those in need. These metaphors suggest that donation of body parts to those in need is not only morally justifiable but also legally acceptable. It is very rational to donate a body part when the donor is well-informed that the transplant means giving life to another and that no suffering result from it. Organs are so valuable to be wasted because individuals neither think about the possibility of living after a transplant of after death.