Fwd: Bioethics vs medical humanities

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Amar Jesani

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Sep 19, 2012, 2:22:25 PM9/19/12

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From: Amar Jesani <amar....@gmail.com>
Date: 19 September 2012 23:51
Subject: Re: Bioethics vs medical humanities
To: Rakesh Biswas <rakesh...@gmail.com>
Cc: kist...@googlegroups.com

Well, suffice to say that the ethics and humanities are useful in different way - deficit of either of them is going to lead to problems. If they do not work to complement, and worst still stand in conflict with each other, then I am sure the project of humanising medicine would remain incomplete. So no use juxtaposing each other. Arthur Caplan (Art), a well-known and celebrated bioethicist, acknowledges that ethics could not do everything, and reaches out to complement it with other aspects of humanities. This does not make Art to discard his bioethics, only make him to open up to broader possibilities. And indeed, Rebecca, the author of the book is not going to discard ethics either - mere humanitarianism without ethics may not always provide the kind of benefit one expects from the medicine.

Anyway, I was not responding to the review or the book - but I was responding to last three or four emails of Ravi as they were using highly competitive language. Neither bioethics not medical humanities can afford to start an unhealthy competition with each other. That was the reason I argued for inclusiveness.

amar

On 19 September 2012 20:26, Rakesh Biswas <rakesh...@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree with Dr Jesani. We need to be more inclusive and take along everyone who wishes to participate and accompany us even if for a short distance.

At the same time i can imagine what gives rise to the current conflict between 'bioethics' and 'medical humanities' people and your lancet link http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2960584-4/fulltext summarizes it well in this line,

"Ethical change can be evoked by analysis, debate, and dialogue but it is not the stuff of which personal clinical encounters are composed. The tools one needs to comprehend one's own disease, misery-inducing treatments, and the compromise or loss of a life-partner are not those needed to try and make a difference in setting policies for clinical care or the allocation of health-care resources. A paediatric oncologist is no more aided in the struggle to cope with his young daughter's tumour by his expertise in cancer biology than a bioethicist is in trying to support a cancer-ridden spouse who is bedbound, cachectic, and in agony."

best,

rakesh

On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 8:07 PM, Ravi Ramakantan <ramakan...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is Amar Jesani's post which I have responded to in my post above.
Dr. Amar Jesani in the Editor of IJME.

Ravi.

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This is an old book review (saw 5-6 months back) - you may get the book by ordering it from Flipkart, costs Rs. 1741 in hard cover.

Ravi, every disciplines has its own limitation. That is why fanaticism for one discipline take us nowhere. Recent converts to a disciplines are always more fanatic about it than those who have been in it for long and seen all from inside. The medicine needs humanity, and so does the humanity need medicine. The relationship of ethics to medicine, law, humanities, social sciences etc is therefore equally interdependent.

Lastly, you are not likely to have luxury of geeting full day or few days in national or international conferences for organising sessions/workshops on medical humanity. No discipline can be popularised if we do not grab opportunity to talk on it for half an hours as well as five days. We need to prepare how to do it in different situations. If organising medical humanity session in a conference of radiologists or surgeons is a good thing to do, then I am sure it is equally good thing to do it in a conference on ethics, and perhaps more because when someone attends ethics conference, he or she is mentally prepared to look beyond his or her discipline. Such individuals would be more interested in the message of MH.

Anyway, it doesn't matter whether this group organises a session or workshop of 90 minutes or half day at the conference. My message is that please do not bring such rigidities and extremism in the MH at such an early stage - they will not help in the development of discipline. Initial over-enthusiasm should be tempered by the long term sustainability of interest and gathering a caravan - for that we have to be inclusive rather than exclusive.

Amar

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________________________________
Amar Jesani
Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (www.ijme.in )
and
Trustee, Anusandhan Trust
Sai Ashray, Aaram Society Road, Vakola
Santacruz East, Mumbai 400055, India
Tel (Office): +91-22-26661176, Mobile: +91- 9833073773
Email: <amar....@gmail.com> & <amarj...@yahoo.co.in>

Institutes of Anusandhan Trust:
(1) CEHAT (Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes); Mumbai (www.cehat.org)
(2) CSER (Centre for Studies in Ethics and Rights), Mumbai (www.cser.in)
(3) SATHI (Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives), Pune (www.sathicehat.org)

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