Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature - M. Stripling (Greenwood, 2005) WW

254 Pages·2005·1.02 MB·English

BIOETHICS AND
MEDICAL ISSUES
IN LITERATURE

Mahala Yates Stripling

GREENWOOD PRESS

BIOETHICS AND
MEDICAL ISSUES
IN LITERATURE

Recent Contributions in
Exploring Social Issues through Literature

Literature and the Environment
George Hart and Scott Slovic, editors

Youth Gangs in Literature
Claudia Durst Johnson

BIOETHICS AND
MEDICAL ISSUES
IN LITERATURE

Mahala Yates Stripling

Exploring Social Issues through Literature
Claudia Durst Johnson and Lynn Malloy, Series Editors

GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stripling, Mahala Yates.
Bioethics and medical issues in literature / Mahala Yates Stripling.
p. ; cm. — (Exploring social issues through literature, ISSN 1551–0263)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–313–32040–3
1. Medicine in literature.
2. Fiction—19th century—History and
criticism.
3. Fiction—20th century—History and criticism.
4. Bioethics.
[DNLM: 1. Medicine in Literature.
2. Bioethical Issues.
WZ 330
S918b 2005]
I. Title.
II. Series.
PN56.M38S76
2005
809�.933561—dc22
2005001493

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.

Copyright � 2005 by Mahala Yates Stripling

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005001493
ISBN: 0-313-32040-3
ISSN: 1551-0263

First published in 2005

Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).

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In loving memory of Irene Yates and Anna Bland
Stripling, the grandmothers who taught many great lessons
to my daughters, Whitney Harding and Lauren Stripling

The sole advantage to possessing great works of literature
lies in what they can help us to become. . . . It is only
they, in so far as they are appropriate food and not poison
for us, that can add to the present value and dignity of our
minds.
—George Santayana, Three Philosophical Poets

Contents

Series Foreword
xi

Preface
xiii

Chronology of Events in Literature, Medicine, and Science
xix

Introduction
1

1.
Technology’s Creature
11

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or, The Modern
Prometheus (1818)
12
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
(1844)
31

2.
A Brave New World
41

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932)
43
Robin Cook’s Coma (1977)
60

3.
Contagions/Isolations
71

Albert Camus’s The Plague (1946)
73
David Feldshuh’s Miss Evers’ Boys (1990)
86

4.
Illness and Culture
101

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962)
103
Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
120