I thought the article "Television Drama and Popular Film as a Medical Narrative", was a good article. This particular article talks about many popular medical shows today and what effects they have on viewers. For example, as an ER viewer, I believe ER causes people to become more aware of their own medical issues. But in some ways it can be consisdered both realistic and "just plan old drama". They do discuss current health issues that go on today which can cause viewers to relate, but that being said sometimes the outcome of the situation whether their recovery was too fast or how they "handle" the situation can cause some viewers to create unrealistic expections concerning their own health.
I thought the article "The Clash of Meaning's Medical Narrative and Biographical Story of Life's End", was a very interesting article. This particular article takes us on a journeyof two elderly people lives and the events that lead up to their death. One person they discussed was a woman named Mrs. B. Mrs B. was an elderly woman who recieved a procedure and died soon after. Following the surgery this once independent woman who would do everything on own her own had to learn "simlple" things again; such as swallowing. As a result, this raised a series of questions concerning when is it the beginging of the end of someones life, and if the end is near should procedures be proformed anyone? My answer to that is no. Speaking from personal experience, as recent as April of 2008, when my father went in to have neck surgery because of an infection "caused" by his liver cancer, and was placed on trach. Of course my family new that eventually he would die because of his cancer but not two months following surgery. If we would have known that he would never get better or had to stay on a trach for the remaining of his life that last procedure wouldn't have been done. I think it is good that physicans are now rasing the question to when is the begining of death because that one thought can determine someone transition from this life to the next.
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the stories about the two elderly folks raises so many questions! and, as you write, causes readers to reflect on decisions they might have made in the past regarding medical procedures for loved ones. (i had an experience similar to yours at the end of my father's life, too.) do you think there's any way to make decisions of this sort "easier" or, in the language of the article, "ethical" -- in the sense that families are not put into positions to make end of life decisions for another?
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