Description:

Sarah Roth
Doctoral Student, English Department
Graduate Affiliate, MH&B Program
Northwestern University

Imagining A Paradoxical Patient: The Rhetoric of Victorian Obstetrics

This lecture will discuss the audiences we imagine when we set down clinical advice in writing. Using nineteenth-century obstetric manuals -- the Victorian versions of What to Expect When You're Expecting -- as a case study, we will examine closely how patients are addressed and described in the abstract. By noting the confusing and alienating paradoxes that these particular medical texts set up for their patient-readers, we can consider the potential impact of physicians' diction on their patients.

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Katie Watson, JD
Assistant Professor
Medical Humanities & Bioethics
Northwestern University

Gallows Humor in Medical Practice and Medical Education

Pain sometimes generates laughter instead of tears. When does humor between healthcare professionals help patient care or trainee learning, and when does it hurt? What's the difference between gallows humor and bullying or ridicule? In this interdisciplinary presentation, Professor Watson will contextualize medicine's backstage storytelling through the lens of the medical humanities, then analyze the ethics of using gallows humor as a coping mechanism in difficult situations.

Description:

Katie Watson, JD
Assistant Professor
Medical Humanities & Bioethics
Northwestern University

The Politics of Abortion: Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt and Beyond

In this lecture, Professor Watson will consider a range of recent expressions of “abortion politics” – from the pending Supreme Court case of Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt, to a pending Congressional investigation of physicians at a private clinic in New Mexico. Then she will step back from the common “controversy du jour” framing of abortion politics to consider how the concept of structural stigma might inform our thinking about the current regulatory climate of abortion care, and the way it’s practiced locally. ​

Description:

Joel E. Frader, MD, MA
Professor in Pediatrics-Academic General Pediatrics and Primary Care and Medical Humanities and Bioethics

Ethical Issues in Pediatric Palliative Care

Pediatric palliative care (PPC) differs substantially from the better known world of palliative care for adults. In the U.S., deaths of children represent only 1-2% of deaths each year. The circumstances of and ethical issues surrounding PPC require a separate set of considerations from the familiar ones in adult medicine. This talk will outline some ethical issues occurring in PPC, illustrated with case examples.

Description:

Teresa A. Savage, PhD RN
Adjunct Assistant Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Medical Education-Medical Humanities and Bioethics

End-of-Life Care for Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities

Of the over 4 million people in the United States with an intellectual and/or developmental disability (I/DD), many will die from the same diseases of aging as members of the general population. However, unlike the general population, there are health care disparities that present unique challenges for adults with I/DD and that can complicate their end-of-life care. This presentation will describe the presenter’s NIH-funded study on end-of-life care for people with I/DD.