The Value of Respect
Tara Beck

Upon receiving the formal assignment for the Medical Humanities Capstone, I returned to my apartment and began drafting ideas of how the minor has shaped my undergraduate career. Of course, I have taken the required courses from Sociology of Health and Mental Illness, to Medical Ethics and the History of Western Medicine, so I figured I must be some source of authority on the minor. I began drafting up ideas of the importance of ethics in medicine: the usual 'Health care workers are bound to work by an ethical code which protects the rights of their patients'—the very basic gist of ethics, similar to the introductory material I learned in Phil444. As I wrote my draft, I tried to think of any memorable instance where I applied the information that I learned from the minor; as an undergraduate premedical student with limited experience in the field, one can imagine how difficult it is to come across scenarios that a premed is bound to the ethical code. So, like anyone suffering from writer's block, I closed my laptop and vowed to return to the draft later. Then, I stumbled upon my "story;" I had the opportunity to do something that seldom undergraduates have: I held and dissected the human brain.

As an undergraduate Neuroscience Major, I am required to take Advance Neuroanatomy; the course itself is as rigorous as it is miraculous, as students have the opportunity to learn about all of the fundamental parts of the human brain. While I was aware of the lab component of the course, I never truly realized what I would have the opportunity to do: admire, study and hold a preserved, human brain. It was a sunny, hot Thursday afternoon; I entered the lab and was greeted by the strong scent of formaldehyde. On my lab table, beneath a layer of preserving cloth laid a fully preserved human brain. After receiving permission from the instructor, I removed the cloth and picked up the gray, dense object—it was heavier than I imagined; I felt the pronounced sulci and gyri beneath my fingertips; I felt the difference in structure and pattern of the cerebellum from the rest of the cerebrum. I flipped the brain over and admired the brain stem—the most primitive part of the central nervous system—and admired the large blood vessel climbing the stalk of the brain stem, entering into the inner core of the brain. It was at this moment that I felt an overwhelming sense of pride, privilege and understanding for the ethical code that members of the health care field—whether students in a cadaver lab or surgeons in the operating room—are bound to uphold. I realized that I grasped in my hands an actual structure responsible for all of the thoughts, emotions, movements and logic that made a person unique. This incredible structure, so powerful yet so compact was in the palm of my hands and I treated it with the same respect and reverence that I would the person it belonged to. It was in this cadaver lab, amidst holding a dissected human brain that I realized the importance of Medical Humanities—of treating every patient, whether that be his physical being or organ—with the upmost respect; I understood the value of learning about mistakes that society, as well as health care institutions, have made in the past in order to make better decisions and respect future patient autonomy.

The courses that I have encountered within the Medical Humanities minor have provided invaluable lessons that teach of the basic ethics that all aspiring physicians should uphold. As I continue on my journey toward a career in medicine, I am able to incorporate the values that I have learned from the minor with the techniques that I will learn in medical school. I aspire to use all that I have learned from the culmination of classes within the minor to become a compassionate, caring physician.