Death, Dying, and Modern Medicine

Catalog description

Despite death's inevitability, we consciously and unconsciously disguise or resist its reality in dreams, fairy tales, allegories, and even jokes. In his book, How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, Sherwin Nuland describes how we have turned increasingly to modern medicine as one more means of denying the reality of death. As a surgeon with more than forty years of experience in a major metropolitan hospital, Nuland admits to actively participating in this denial. Modern medicine, he argues, influences how we as individuals and as a culture not only view but also experience death. "Modern dying," he contends, "takes place in the modern hospital, where it can be hidden, cleansed of its organic blight, and finally packaged for modern burial." This course uses literature, history, and personal and critical accounts related to death as points of reference for examining the role modern medicine has come to play in how we die. The course requires out-of-class service learning, reading quizzes, papers, participation, and attendance. For graduate students, there are additional paper and presentation requirements. No prerequisites required. Offered as BETH 316 and BETH 416 .