[Sent – 26 May 2019 to the 170+ surgeons et al of our Surgical Ethics (Education) Consortium]
Greetings from St. Louis and WashU. At least a decade ago, I was invited to assist with a values clarification session for the WashU Ob/Gyn interns re their views of and likely approaches to patient care involving abortion. Since then I have continued to do so each academic year. As I was preparing this morning for the next values clarification session, we circulated the 2006 article titled ‘Regarding Zygotes as Persons: Implications for Public Policy’ my colleague Dr. Wall and I had published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. In the article, Dr. Wall (who until his retirement a few years ago was the WashU Ob/Gyn Department’s uro-gynecologic surgery division chief and with whom I have worked collaboratively since the mid-1990s) and I question the scientific (in)accuracy and the public policy (ir)rationality of abortion restriction state legislative bills such as those currently spreading across the US. We welcome your feedback.
Doug
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Reflections on the Search for a Very Healthy Center
Topics
Blog Archive
-
▼
2020
(100)
-
▼
July
(27)
- DOWN THE TRUMP RABBIT HOLE – 14 April 2020
- DOWN THE TRUMP RABBIT HOLE – 29 January 2020
- DOWN THE TRUMP RABBIT HOLE – 20 January 2020
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #34
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #33
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #32
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #31
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #30
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #29
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #28
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #27
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #26
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #25
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #24
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #23
- Image #36
- Image #35
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #22
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #21
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #20
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #19
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #18
- Image #34
- Image #33
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #17
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #16
- Surgical Ethics Education Resources #15
-
▼
July
(27)
About the Title of This Blog
[December 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay for his parents, his siblings (and their children), his closest friend (Eberhard Bethge), and his fellow covert resisters imbedded in the Abwehr. I have been privileged to have the assistance of Renate Bethge -- Eberhard’s wife and Dietrich’s favored niece by his older sister Ursala -- as I revised and finalized my translation. Words/phrases in parentheses offer additional nuances, add implied ideas, or indicate alternative translations. ]
The View from Below
"It remains an experience of unparalleled (incomparable) value that we have learned to see for once the great events of world history from below – through the perspective of the barred (put out, cut out, blocked), the suspects, the badly treated, the powerless, the oppressed (restrained), the scoffed (derided, mocked), in short the perspective of those who suffer. (It is) only in this time when neither bitterness nor envy (jealousy) has cauterized (corroded, gnawed away) the heart that we see with new eyes great and small, fortunate and unfortunate, strong and weak; that our view of greatness, humaneness, justice, and compassion has become clearer, more free, more incorruptible (not subject to bribes); indeed, (that we see) that personal suffering is a more suitable (qualified) key (code, cipher), a more fruitful principle, than is personal good fortune for exploring the world by observation and action. It follows that this perspective from below will not be the partisan claim of those forever discontent, but that we are just in all life’s dimensions out of a higher contentment that is grounded properly beyond ‘from below’ and ‘from above’. And so it is affirmed." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Ten Years Later"