Ethical decision making has been at the forefront of not only my major, but also my career direction. It is most commonly known that science and philosophy are two separate identities. In the spring of 2010, I took Human Identity with Father Joensen who brought together a wide array of knowledge of several different disciplines including philosophy, but was also relative and connective to majors besides philosophy.
One of the stories in which we read about has helped me to connect with patients on a more personal level at my internship, the cath lab doing cardiac research. The story unfolded its tale in a simple manner speaking of a husband who died and had given his heart to a donor. The wife longed to hear her husband’s heart beat and seeks closure and peace of mind. She seeks out the recipient just to hear his heart beat. The class brought about different questions such as: Is the organ made of just organic material or does it have personal depths to it? Why would a wife travel great distances to hear just a heart beat? What was significant about that one heart beat? In the story, the wife says she knows her late husband by his heart beat. From a scientific point of view, the Atrioventricular and Semilunar values are just opening and closing causing a heart rate. From a philosophical point of view, the blood being pushed during these contractions of opening and closing the values is the blood that has sustained him in his life, it is the life within him.
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