Theo 368, Chose ONE of the topics below and use it to craft your response.

Student must read and offer a response to the book

When Breath Becomes Air

(WBBA) by Paul

Kalanithi. Choose ONE of the topics below and use it to craft your response. Please integrate

course material and use both content from Health Care Ethics as a reference. I am looking for

integrated papers which not only respond to the selected question below but also show your

mastery of the course material thus far.

Select one of the following to construct your paper.

1. How does health care respond not only to our physical ailments but also to our spiritual

and religious understanding of a good life? Select three short passages from WBBA that

reveal how health care transcends mere policies and technical expertise. You might think

of this question as addressing how science and religion are compatible and work together

to better understand and treat the patient. Using HCE ideas and insights from our class

discussions, show how relevant it is to know the patients’ context when making sound

medical decisions on their behalf. Then, explain how your chosen passages do so. If you

foresee a career for yourself in health care, what essential lessons do you draw from this

text that you would hope to apply to your own work.

2. How does WBBA reveal how a death with dignity can be experienced for patients in our

health care system at present? How do our religious and ethical ideas impact how we

formulate an idea of what a good death is? Select at least three passages in the book that

deal with this idea, and explain how each addresses this topic. Make connections with

part 5 in the EDR for this topic. If you foresee a career for yourself in health care, what

essential lessons do you draw from these passages that you would hope to apply to your

own work?

3. How does this book reveal some of the Catholic moral principles discussed in HCE?

Select at least three passages from WBBA related to these principles, and explain how

each sheds light on the meaning of these principles. Part 1 and 2 of the ERD can also

guide this question. If you foresee a career for yourself in health care, what essential

lessons do you draw from these passages that you would hope to apply to your own

work?

4. How does WBBA present the meaning of life and the dignity of a person through the

eyes of the doctor and the patient? How can you apply elements of the patient –doctor

relationship presented in HCE? Select at least three passages from WBBA that address

this topic, and explain how each does so. If you foresee a career for yourself in health

care, what essential lessons do you draw from these passages that you would hope to

apply to your own work?

You can approach the topics through these steps which your paper should contain:

1. Material – WBBA as a real life story of an individual – both doctor and patient as he

faces death – what have you learned from his experience

2. Context of Paul’s experience and connections with other sources (HCE and ERD) – what

do our other sources confirm/challenge in Paul’s experience

3. Personal ideas about future careers and how this material can influence that – what are

your thoughts midway through the semester about the import of heath care and the ethical

dimensions from a Catholic perspective – flourishing of life, care for one another, more

just world, treatment for those most vulnerable. If we honor the Catholic principles in

health care how do we care for the dignity of each human being as one created in the

image of God. And how to we make sure our work is committed to justice, to the

solidarity of the human family, and to the common good.

Length: 4-5 pages

When Breath Becomes Air (WBBA) by Paul Kalanithi. (can provide e-book access code).