HIST 205 Life Cycles: Birth, Death and the History of Medicine
This course will offer greater understanding of the history of medicine and how the hospital has become a central institution in the life cycle. Beginning with a basic introduction to contemporary healthcare in America, it will next offer a historic and scientific discussion of conception and child-birth. The course will then focus on cancer as an example of one of the diseases to which the human body is susceptible and conclude with a discussion of death as part of life. In addition, the course will take on the history of the hospital and the medical personnel who work within. Central to each of these themes will be the ethical questions and complexities that cannot be separated from the practical aspects of caring for life. Through case studies, lab work, invited guests and a visit to off-site medical research facilities, the class will offer students both an understanding of the biology of reproduction and cancer, as well as the increasingly complex nature of the science of care.
Prerequisite
Sciences: Science of the Natural World and Sciences: Social Science must be completed prior to taking this course.