Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature

166 Pages·2013·4.22 MB·English

by  Mahala Yates Stripling

UC Berkeley
Perspectives in Medical Humanities
Title
Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9pj7j4t6
ISBN
9780988986527
Author
Stripling, Mahala Yates
Publication Date
2013-08-22

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Bioethics and Medical Issues
in Literature
Perspectives in Medical Humanities
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Bioethics and Medical Issues
in Literature
Mahala Yates Stripling, PhD
First published in 2013
by University of California Medical Humanities Press
in partnership with eScholarship | University of California
© 2013 by Mahala Yates Stripling
University of California
Medical Humanities Consortium
3333 California Street, Suite 485
San Francisco, CA 94143-0850
Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature, by Mahala Yates Stripling, was originally published in hard cover by
Greenwood Publishing Group, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara, CA. Copyright © 2005 by
Mahala Yates Stripling. Abridged paperback edition by arrangement with ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara,
CA. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or
mechanical including photocopying, reprinting, or on any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013946796
ISBN: 978-0-9889865-2-7
Printed in USA
Design by Bink, Inc.
Contents
Preface vii
Chronology of Events in Literature, Medicine, and
Science ix
1. Technology’s Creature: An Analysis of Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” 1
2. A Brave New World: An Analysis of Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World and Robin Cook’s Coma 24
3. Contagions/Isolations: An Analysis of Albert Camus’
The Plague and David Feldshuh’s Miss Evers’ Boys 47
4. Illness and Culture: An Analysis of Ken Kesey’s One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret
of Joy 72
5. End of Life—Disease and Death: An Analysis of
John Updike’s Rabbit at Rest and Margaret Edson’s Wit 101
Glossary of Terms: Literary, Medical, and Scientific 127
Index 148

Preface
Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature, in the Pedagogy in Medical Humanities
series, is updated from the 2005 first edition used worldwide in all levels of
education. The revisions reflect how fast science is taking us into the twenty-
first century. It draws on the discipline of bioethics (founded in the late 1960s)
and the field of literature and medicine (established in the mid-1970s). Readers
will study both the technical and human side of science while gaining a respect
for diversity and the art of medicine. Although there are historical references
all the way back to ancient times, the selections span a 200-year period from
the birth of modern medicine in the early nineteenth century to the present.
The 10 works of accessible fiction in five thematic chapters can be read
alone or in chronological order because each successive work builds on concepts
that precede it. For example, in chapter 1, “Technology’s Creature,” Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
describe science taking precedence over individual human rights. It is not a
great leap into chapter 2, “A Brave New World,” to discuss Aldous Huxley’s
description of dispassionate eugenics in Brave New World and Robin Cook’s
imagined commercial avarice in the human transplant industry in Coma.
In chapter 3, “Contagions/Isolations,” Albert Camus’ The Plague reveals
the unrelenting nature of plague, initiating philosophical discussions about
man’s morality in an atmosphere of every-man-for-himself. David Feldshuh’s
Miss Evers’ Boys describes a baseline syphilis study on blacks, without their in-
formed consent, who were denied the standard of care for whites. The main
theme in chapter 4, “Illness and Culture,” as described in Ken Kesey’s One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy, is that
illness can be culture-specific and that diagnostic methods and treatment op-
tions change throughout the years. At last, chapter 5, “End of Life—Disease
and Death,” shows in John Updike’s Rabbit at Rest and Margaret Edson’s Wit,
how, respectively, a self-indulgent man shortens his life and a cancer-stricken
woman deals with psychic and physical pain as she nears the end of hers.
There is a vast range of topics, including scientific rivalry, mental illness, cul-
viii Preface
tural rituals, obesity, bioterrorism, and stem cell research, listed in the compre-
hensive index.
Each selection is placed in an historical context and has a plot synopsis
and literary analysis. A glossary gives clear definitions of literary, scientific,
and medical terms, providing easy access to the non-specialist. The chronol-
ogy is a useful timeline of events. Suggestions are provided to provoke lively
discussions and to stimulate further reading. In a skills-across-the-curriculum
approach, this book puts a human face on medicine as science forges ahead.
What science cannot explain, literature explores.
A running theme throughout Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature is the
Hippocratic need to be useful, and in this vein I thank Linda Lucas for her
careful proofreading and Dr. Brian Dolan for his help in developing this second
edition, offering a way to understand how to balance advancing technology
with individual human rights as well as responsibilities.
Chronology of Events in Literature, Medicine, and
Science
These Western medicine selections relate to the works included here. This is
not a comprehensive timeline, but to provide context some unrelated historical
events are shown.
B.C.
c. 4500 Sumerian and Egyptian Cultures begin.
c. 3000 Writing invented.
c. 450 Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, wrote Corpus Hippocrates,
a systematic and scientific approach to medicine; his definition
of a doctor’s position and role in society is incorporated into his
Hippocratic Oath, central to medicine today.
A.D.
129 Birth of Galen Pergamum, Greek physician called the Father of
Sports Medicine, who refined and organized the humoral system
of medical knowledge and gave an account of the skeleton and
the muscles that move it.
476-1000 Fall of Western Roman Empire; the Dark Ages begin when
classical learning and literacy decline.
c.750-1485—The Middle Ages
1037 Death of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), author of Canon of Medicine.
1137 St. Bartholomew’s Hospital founded in London.
1270 Invention of spectacles in Venice.
1336-1453 Hundred Years War.
1340 End of the Plague of Justinian, following trade routes to France
and Italy, killing 70,000.
1347-1352 The Black Death (the Bubonic Plague) hits England the hardest
in 1348-49, killing 40 percent of the population; in western