Life as an Extreme Sport

Category: Academics

Classes and coursework.

House (M.D.) Trivia

Academics, Bioethics, House MD, Pop Culture

Occasionally it’s fun read the IMDB trivia page for TV shows. For example, while I’ve long dismissed the criticism that there’s no such thing as a diagnostician team/division of diagnostic medicine in hospitals (while I am willing to accept I sometimes have a creative mind, I’m not yet willing to believe I’ve completely made up people I know, working in hospitals, who are working in that field), I’ve been puzzled by Chase’s title, intensivist. According to IMDB, an intensivist is doctor who specializes in intensive care. This specialty is new and uncommon in the United States, but well-established in Australia, where the character is from. Neat, eh? A good attention to detail, which is something I can appreciate.

(For those who might have missed out, I’m actually working on a project about television, media, medicine and responsibility. And by working on, I mean doing a lot of reading, and debating justifying the purchase of the first two seasons of House, MD…as research, of course.)

why bioethics?

Academics, Bioethics

The other day, a friend of mine asked me, rather out of the blue, “why bioethics?” It’s a fair question, and it’s not one I’ve ever really explained to people. But trying to think through the process of why and how is a bit of a challenge – I didn’t go back to school planning on a career in bioethics, and the decisions I made that landed me here are ones I largely made by myself. And if you think my external thought process is messy, you should see what it’s like inside my head.

Matt’s not the only one who’s asked, recently, “why bioethics?” Most of the applied ethics job candidates have some background in bioethics, and want to know why I want to go into the field. That makes sense; chances are good I’ll be working with whomever comes on board in some capacity or other, and knowing my motivations is important. Now if only I could articulate them – perhaps I should ask my sounding board (Michael); he might remember things I don’t.

But anyhow, while I’m still internally mulling and externally mumbling about my own decision for bioethics – for the rest of you reading this who share the field, why bioethics? Why did you decide to devote your life to this? What drew you in? Why are you here in this particular gloom and doom level of hell with me? (Not that I’m complaining, mind you – company is always better when you’re contemplating such things!)

Back at ASBH, one of the journal editors was really pushing the idea of approaching certain journals about editing one-off issues on a special topic. I kept thinking about a story Bob Veatch told in August, and the idea of origins. I mean, which of us was bitten by that radioactive bioethicist, and who found a ring laying on the ground, and who had the early childhood trauma? (And I did have this idea prior to the bioethicists as superheroes piece that came out in the ASBH Exchange today, thank you very much.)

So entertain me, fellow crazy people: tell me your origin story. Here, in the comments, or in email if you’re shy…but I do want to know. And when I figure out how to give words to my reasons, I’ll post it…right after I call Matt to let him know what the answer to his question is.

high on my list of annoyances right now

Academics, Bioethics

We’re hiring. I think I’ve mentioned this. We’ve done four of the six interviews, and after every interview, we tend to stand around and chitchat about the applicant. And I swear, if one more non-applied ethics/bioethics person, be they faculty or student, tries to tell me what bio or applied ethics studies, publishes about, or in general thinks, I might scream. Or actually get violent.

Tonight’s conversation went something like this:

Me: So, what’d you think?
Person: Well, I thought it was interesting how he brought in biology, since ethics doesn’t handle that.
Me: …wha?
Person: Yeah, no one doing ethics – you know, applied or bio or whatever, really considers biology, especially evolutionary biology in their writing.
Me: …er…
Person: But like I said the other day, ethics is just all dialogue anyhow.
Faculty: Too many people kvetching. There’s no science or logical thought or process in ethics, especially bioethics.
Me: Are you trying to taunt me?
Faculty: It’s a known fact!
Person: Kvetching is a great word to describe the entire field! No one does serious research.
Me: …I’m leaving now. I need a drink.

Moral of the story: I need to spend some time at AMBI, around people who aren’t going to try to tell me what my field studies, or dismiss the entire thing as pointless and not important.

I mean, I know it sounds silly (and yes, GM, I know – just ignore them), but to listen to a group of graduate students and faculty share this opinion about bioethics just being a bunch of people kvetching and not doing real research just made me want to curl up somewhere and cry. It’s hard not to take this personally, and assume that what they think about the field they also think about me. They’re painting bioethics in a very broad and extremely unflattering brush, and it’s kind of hard to see how they could not think similar about me.

I came here for this?

one of THOSE teachers

Academics

For some reason the last week has been a week of talking about teaching; I’ve been telling lots of random stories. About my fabulous Eye + Mind kids and their projects, the hell and heaven of 390s, my own class, and of the personae I step into whenever I teach. It’s so similar to improv, that it’s a very comfortable role for me to step into – and it lets me do things that startle the students. Talking to Laurie reminded me of one of those startling things.

I lost a bet, back when I was teaching. And as a result, I ended up wearing pajamas to school one day. One day while I had to teach. So I wore my blue plaid flannel pants, a blue long-sleeved top with an Eeyore applique, matching Eeyore applique slippers, and socks. I wore my grey bathrobe as coat, and figured I would go the whole nine yards, and did my hair in high pigtails.

To say my students were stunned that I upheld my end of the bargain is an understatement. They literally were shocked speechless. But I did it, taught and went to my own classes, and stayed in those PJs all day (lounging around the office after was a lot of fun). And you know, the rest of the quarter, I didn’t have a single problem with any of my kidsstudentsYes, I refer to my students as my kids, even when they’re older than me. I’m trying to break the habit, and be a little more formal about it, but to be honest, kids is a much more affectionate term of endearment, and even when they drove me up the walls, I held a lot of affection for all of them.

I think there’s a lesson in there, somewhere, about not taking yourself seriously, and about treating your students both with respect and humour. But it might simply be a story about me doing just about anything, if dared. I’ll leave it for you to decide.

Politicians

Academics, Bioethics, Politics

And speaking of politicians, I spent a good chunk of my morning actually interacting with local politicians, including (ever so briefly) the senior senator from New York. But the vast majority was spent talking to local legislators, and it was an interesting experience. I’ve never before had someone look at me like they just wanted to devour my brain, and thought that if they did so, they’d know everything I do.

The initial conversation was struck over my textbook, but when they found out I study bioethics, their ears literally perked up – a complete change in body language, and I found myself fielding questions about stem cell research and policies, cloning, the differences between different kinds of stem cells, the problem with putting faith in amniotic fluid stem cells, and on. We even discussed the problems with promoting universal health care for a while.

After a bit, one of the gentlemen, who turned out to be another’s campaign manager, asked me if I’d thought I’d be going to a job interview when I got out of bed this morning. I asked him why he thought that I was interviewing for anything, and he told me it was because they were starting their groundwork for a presidential run in either 2012 or 2016 (which sent us off on an interesting historical deviation on beating incumbents), and they needed a savvy bioethicist on staff , and they thought I was perfect for the job. Ballsy, well-spoken, and able to explain complicated and controversial subjects in a manner that made sense and seemed to remove some of the controversy.

Flattery will always get you everywhere.

It was an interesting experience, and highlighted to me, not just the need to invest in business cards, but that I should definitely focus more on educating myself about politics in general. I have no intention of being “just” an academic, off in an institution teaching undergraduates basic ethical theory, and have every intent of actively peddling my trade (as it were) in the public sphere. And in my case, this does likely mean an involvement in politics. It seems that, much like the more you know about journalism the easier it ought to be to deal with the media, the more one knows about politics the easier it ought to be to work with politicians. Let’s see if that theory is correct, eh?