Medical Humanities Works
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Item Liver Allocation to Non-Citizen Non-Residents: An Ethical Framework for a Last-In-Line Approach(Wiley, 2016-06) Hartsock, Jane A.; Ivy, Steven; Helft, Paul R.; Department of Medicine, IU School of MedicineThe incidence of non-U.S. citizen non-U.S. resident patients coming to the United States specifically for deceased donor liver transplantation raises compelling ethical questions that require careful consideration. The inclusion of these often financially and/or socially privileged patients in the pool of potential candidates for an absolutely scarce and life-saving liver transplant may exacerbate disparities already existing in deceased donor liver allocation. In addition, their inclusion on organ transplant waiting lists conflicts with recognized ethical principles of justice and reciprocity. Moreover, preliminary data suggest that public awareness of this practice could discourage organ donation, thereby worsening an already profound supply–demand gulf. Finally, U.S. organ allocation policies and statutes are out of step with recently promulgated international transplant guidelines, which prioritize self-sufficiency of organ programs. This article analyzes each of these ethical conflicts within the context of deceased donor liver transplantation and recommends policy changes that align the United States with international practices that discourage this scenario.Item How The Fault in Our Stars illuminates four themes of the Adolescent End of Life Narrative(BMJ, 2018) Kirkman, Anna Obergfell; Hartsock, Jane A.; Torke, Alexia M.; Medical Humanities and Health Studies, School of Liberal ArtsAdolescents who face life-limiting illness have unique developmental features and strong personal preferences around end of life (EOL) care. Understanding and documenting those preferences can be enhanced by practising narrative medicine. This paper aims to identify a new form of narrative, the Adolescent End of Life Narrative, and recognise four central themes. The Adolescent EOL Narrative can be observed in young adult fiction, The Fault in Our Stars, which elucidates the notion that terminally ill adolescents have authentic preferences about their life and death. Attaining narrative competence and appreciating the distinct perspective of the dying adolescent allows medical providers and parents to support the adolescent in achieving a good death. By thinking with the Adolescent EOL Narrative, adults can use Voicing my CHOiCES, an EOL planning guide designed for adolescents, to effectively capture the adolescent’s preferences, and the adolescent can make use of this type of narrative to make sense of their lived experience.Item A Human Paradox: The Nazi Legacy of Pernkopf’s Atlas(2019) Hartsock, Jane; Beckman, Emily; Medical Humanities & Health Studies ProgramEduard Pernkopf’s Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy is a four-volume anatomical atlas published between 1937 and 1963, and it is generally believed to be the most comprehensive, detailed, and accurate anatomy textbook ever created. However, a 1997 investigation into “Pernkopf’s Atlas,” raised troubling questions regarding the author’s connection to the Nazi regime and the still unresolved issue of whether its illustrations relied on Jewish or other political prisoners, including those executed in Nazi concentration camps. Following this investigation, the book was removed from both anatomy classrooms and library bookshelves. A debate has ensued over the book’s continued use, and justification for its use has focused on two issues: (1) there is no definitive proof the book includes illustrations of concentration camp prisoners or Jewish individuals in particular, and (2) there is no contemporary equivalent to this text. However, both points fail to address the central importance of the book, not simply as part of anatomy instruction, but also as a comprehensive historical narrative with important ethical implications. Having encountered a first edition copy, these authors were given a unique opportunity to engage with the text through the respective humanities lenses of history, ethics, and narrative. In doing so, an instructive and profound irony has surfaced: Nazis, including Pernkopf, viewed specific groups of people as less than human, giving rise to unthinkable atrocities perpetuated against them. However, these same individuals became the sources for the creation of the Atlas, which served as the model for primary instruction on the human form for more than half of the twentieth century. In this article, we recount the difficult and somewhat opaque provenance of this book, engage the ethical questions surrounding both its creation and its use, and ultimately propose a pedagogical methodology for its continued use in medical education.Item Review: Black Health and the Humanities(PubPub, 2022-10-31) Nelson, Elizabeth; Medical Humanities & Health Studies Program, School of Liberal ArtsItem Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles, Daniel Hack Tuke(2023) Osborn, GraceThis essay was written for the course HIST H364/H546: The History of Medicine and Public Health. Instructor: Elizabeth Nelson, School of Liberal Arts, Indiana University, Indianapolis.Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles, Daniel Hack TukeItem The Early Historical Account of Inhalation Anaesthesia, Barbara M. Duncum(2023) Toliver, JosephThis essay was written for the course HIST H364/H546: The History of Medicine and Public Health. Instructor: Elizabeth Nelson, School of Liberal Arts, Indiana University, Indianapolis.Item Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Degeneration and Regeneration of the Nervous System(2023) Delaney, ErinThis essay was written for the course HIST H364/H546: The History of Medicine and Public Health. Instructor: Elizabeth Nelson, School of Liberal Arts, Indiana University, Indianapolis.Item A Treatise by Founder of Scientific Surgery, John Hunter(2023) Quick, SophieThis essay was written for the course HIST H364/H546: The History of Medicine and Public Health. Instructor: Elizabeth Nelson, School of Liberal Arts, Indiana University, Indianapolis.Item Medical Racism and Black Health Activism in Indianapolis and Beyond: Learning Modules for Health Professionals(2024) Nelson, ElizabethThis set of modules, designed for health care professionals, focuses on the history of health disparities in the United States, with a special focus on Indianapolis. Health disparities between different racial and ethnic groups have been documented since the 1800s. Anti-Black racism has played a central role in the making of modern medicine in the US; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., considered discrimination in medicine to be the most “shocking and inhuman” form of racism. Civil Rights activists and Black health care professionals have led efforts to minimize health disparities, in Indianapolis and beyond, over many decades. But there is more work to be done. As we build toward a more equitable future, we would be wise to inform ourselves of this past.