MedEx Day 10 - July 12, 2021

Today was the first day of the 3rd week of MedEx. To begin today, Tier III had a lecture on Ethics from Dr. Carmela Epright. Dr. Epright's ethics lecture centered around Nazi experiments, including Dr. Josef Mengele and the Holocaust, and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment inside the USA. Throughout our discussion of both, the theme of eugenics was extremely pertinent, and we talked about how eugenics can invade our society/ thoughts, even today (I think this is what stood out the most to me from Dr. Epright's lecture). One example of a eugenics topic that is still circulating today, is prenatal genetic testing a type of eugenics? Considering this question, I think of my father who has a really rare metabolic disorder/ at the time he was born, no one had ever lived with this genetic disorder. Obviously, my father lived, since I am here, but I often wonder would I still be here had genetic testing been available in 1967? On the opposite side of the question, does genetic testing offer people the opportunity to endure less suffering during their lifetime? Continuing that question, how do we define a "normal" person/ what degree of suffering is "normal"? I thoroughly enjoyed discussing and thinking about these topics from both sides. I felt like my ethical responsibility to myself and others, as well as my oral communication and critical thinking skills were challenged and grew as a result.

Another thing that stood out to me from Dr. Epright's lecture was our discussion of many minority groups hesitancy to receive one of the Covid-19 vaccines. A lot of this hesitancy stems from the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment and feelings/ emotions passed down for generations. The US Public Health Service (USPHS) began this study to see if there were differences in the way that an African American and a white person responds to syphilis. During the experiment the USPHS prevented African American males enrolled in the study from knowing the diagnosis of their disease (syphilis) and from accessing treatment for syphilis, even though this treatment became available during the course of the study. As a result, these patients' syphilis continued to grow worse and worse until it reached the point of neurosyphilis and death. It is truly terrible to consider this fate/ how it could have been prevented; it showed once again the inequality that has existed in healthcare for a long time/ how it can pervade today's healthcare system. Certainly this discussion helped me to improve my cultural competency.

After Dr. Epright's lecture, Tier III had a nurse practitioner, Dr. Hopkins, who specializes in adolescents and women's health speak to us about both of those topics. Dr. Hopkins went through the stages of adolescent development and how adolescents develop physically, cognitively, emotionally, socially, and morally. An interesting fact that I learned was that in the pubescent mind, mental processing is typically done through the amygdala unless the prefrontal cortex has been developed. I found this extremely interesting, as it explains why teenagers, in general, associate their feelings with their mental processing.

After we had a Kaplan session on Psychology and Sociology.