Looking back and forward in our unit

This illness and dying unit has provoked a lot of thoughts that I had unconsciously chosen not to confront and analyze. As I have written in several of my blog entries, I have had a personal experience with death having lost my mother. Through the readings, films and class discussions I've developed a deeper understanding on illness and dying and the way these issues are perceived in our culture. I've also begun to develop a more concrete perspective on the issue of mortality and I've become clearer in my critique of the way our society handles issues related to illness and dying.

Some ideas, insights and items of information that I've learned in our illness and dying unit so far...

• "Doctors with the highest percentage of denials get a bonus." (Sicko)

From the movie Sicko (Michael Moore, 2007), I have developed an understanding of the ways in which corporations have distorted the health care system so that it favors the wealthy and those lucky enough to have good health insurance. Michael Moore's film showed me that America's health care system is in many ways corrupt and unjust.  Instead of being focused on how to insure that people receive the best possible health care, the corporations that run the health care industry are more concerned with maximizing profit. 

• When people become fatally ill, they are expected to be ashamed of their decaying bodies. Its seen as abnormal if they're not. (Tuesdays with Morrie)

Unlike the majority of people, Morrie grew to accept his decaying body during his final months. At first he was ashamed that he had to depend on other people to "wipe his ass." Later he chose to think more positively about this and compared the needs of his old age to those of babies.

• Our culture looks for technological quick fixes rather than solving the root of the problem.(class discussion) 

This is a pervasive problem seen in all of the areas we've discussed over the course of this semester. For example, during the food unit, we watched Food Inc. where they showed how instead of feeding cows their natural diet, they're given unhealthy food substitutes that harm them and the environment. As the "quick fix" they drown the meat in ammonia to clean it instead of practicing sustainable farming and feeding methods.

• There is a large disconnection that humans tend to feel from illness and dying.(Tuesdays with Morrie)

People also tend to see themselves as detached from nature, and don't understand the nature of dying. I've also come to understand that when people grow ill to the point of death, their bodies slowly decay, which society doesn't view as normal and thus feel very disconnected from.
 

The source that has been most helpful for me was the book Tuesday's with Morrie because the author focused the attention of the book on Morrie's critiques and insights about dominant social practices. I also found that it helped me a lot because I was able to relate to Morrie in a weird way, and I often found myself thinking about something that he said.

The book provided me with flashbacks of my mothers illness, and I was able to compare and contrast Morrie's story to my mother's. Morrie's willingness to accept his death, even as he simultaneously seeks to fully experience every aspect of life before he dies, is an approach to mortality that I hadn't considered before.  Through this, I realized that death's permanence isn't the only element of reasons why we haven't learned to accept death.

In the final weeks of the class I think its important to take a less Eurocentric perspective on these issues. I would be interested in learning about how cultures beyond American and Canadian face and understand illness and dying. Additionally, I think we should explore holistic forms of medicine, and how certain societies have chosen to take that approach. I hope that we can explore this through research and classroom discussions where students would be able to share stories from their own cultural backgrounds.