Faculty Bibliography

In 'Someday,' Mr. Malcolm, national affairs correspondent of The Times and the author of 'Unknown America' and 'Final Harvest,' attempts to trace these different themes in his own life and then bring them all to bear on that one moment 'on a trying, sunny autumn afternoon in a dim room on the third floor of a hospital where my mother lay in suspended animation.' He goes back to his childhood, starting with his memories of his mother, and follows his own development as a son and as a child deeply attached to animals but repeatedly wounded by their deaths. A family cat is run over and the child grieves, wonders if the death was somehow his fault; his parents are uncomfortable. 'Mom suggested it was perhaps some other cat; in fact, she was sure of it and I shouldn't think another thing about it.' Then his own beloved dog is hit by a car and killed, and the boy's father tells him: 'He had a good life with us. But you wouldn't want him crawling around here, always in pain, all crippled.' 'Yes, I would. I'd take care of him. Forever,' says the child. The author's great triumph is that he makes his mother real; she does not exist as an ethical abstraction, or simply as a benign and beloved presence in her son's memory. [Andrew H. Malcolm]'s mother is not necessarily likable, not even to her son. He loves her, of course, and she loves him -- but somehow never enough. 'On Mom's birthday,' he writes, 'I sent her a ship-to-shore cable; I just knew she'd be as excited to get it as I was to send it. She said she got it.' When he becomes a reporter, she never reads his stories. Why? Mr. Malcolm shows that one of the plaintive truths of a parent's death is that it wipes out for all time the chance to repair old wounds. However unrealistic it may be, some people go though their adult lives waiting to hear the words of approval their parents never did and never will say. I was puzzled. Several times I had gone out of my way, conversationally, to describe my medical and ethical stories and then probe gently for her feelings about life-prolonging medical treatment. I started the discussions by saying what I would want and then, seemingly as an afterthought, asking her. 'Your father was lucky,' she replied, 'he went quickly.' Or, 'I don't like all those machines.' One evening, she said, 'I don't want to stay past my time.' I gave out a mental sigh. At last some wonderfully clear directions until, later, I realized who was going to be left to figure out whose time it was or wasn't

People lie to doctors, which is not surprising when one considers the questions that doctors ask. Although doctors expect to be lied to, they resent the practice

A short story is presented

The advantage to having a pediatrician in the family was demonstrated when a child choked at dinner. The pediatrician's husband believes that she overreacted, causing the child to undergo medical tests that might have been unnecessary. An account of the event is given

Perri Klass reviews 'Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making' by David J. Rothman

Perri Klass offers his diary of the 7th International Conference on AIDS

There was criticism of the United States as speakers attacked the Bush administration's policy preventing travellers infected with the HIV virus from entering the country. (However, early this month the Bush administration announced its plan to allow people infected with AIDS to enter the United States so long as they did not intend to seek permanent residence.) A Florence newspaper, La Gazzetta, has the best headline of the day: 'Viaggio Nel Pianeta Del Congresso Sull'AIDS' (Voyage on the Planet of the AIDS Congress). You have to be on time to get a seat this morning. [Luc Montagnier], of the Institut Pasteur, is introduced as the discoverer of HIV, another reminder of the [Robert Gallo] controversy. He is talking about what specific signals bring about the death of T-cells, which is the hallmark of immunodeficiency in AIDS

Honesty and respect make for the best doctor-patient relationship. Ten ways to help a doctor be a better doctor for individuals are discussed, including explaining an ailment clearly, being on time for an appointment and taking medicines as directed

A woman recalls her experience with trying to keep a four-month-old baby alive. Even though the professionals have all the training that they need, there will be times when all they do is not enough

For most people, contact with the medical system is fraught with anxiety-powerlessness; a sense of helplessness in the face of unfamiliar jargon; terror, always, of disaster. In this collection of fiction about medicine, these themes recur, as if many of the writers hoped, by making fiction out of this experience, to give back to frightened patients some ability to speak for themselves, to express their fear and their anger. Eloquent voices describe the sensations of people in the grip of illness, of people watching their relatives struggle with hospitals. The collection is organized by theme; there are, for example, sections on 'Women,' on 'Disability,' on 'the Medical Environment.' In some ways, this gives the book an initially disconcerting aspect, the air of a textbook rather than an anthology of fiction. However, there are no reading-comprehension questions at the ends of these sections, and in fact this volume should be read to appreciate the complexity of both fiction and medicine, rather than to teach lessons about any specific topic. The variety of fiction offered here is too rich, too articulate, too powerful to be used to point out specific morals