Let me start by saying that these few weeks I have been impressed by the insights my classmates have share.  Thursday we got off to a great start, but then we were beating a dead horse.  It seemed like opinions and perspectives were only rephrased.  The discussion became as repetitive as the readings, like the article on Sims which unnecessarily stated his contributions three times all on the first page (in the Abstract, the introductory paragraph, and the Key Points). 

Also, maybe I'm missing something, but I failed to see the relevance of how authorities exercise their power to induce normalization or compliance (as explained by Foucault) and how we can apply his that to issues today.  It seemed like J. Sims was reminiscently put on trial which is utterly pointless cause he and his contemporaries and his subjects are all dead and there's nothing we do to/for them.  If normalcy/deviancy is determined by culture, then the status of hero/villain is correspondingly determined by culture.   Instead of only judging him we need to understand that he is a predestined victim of culture.  We then need to ask how can we not end up like Sims?  How does the desire for a better socio-economic status go from wanting to live comfortably to believing that power and fame are as necessary as water, food, and shelter?  What's going on psychologically?   What are the environmental factors that led him to become that person, like his development in childhood?

Secondly, some students brought up how much better medicine is today as an excuse for Sims.  With standard treatments like arsenic and mercury, experimentation wasn't much of a distinction.   That distinction is even less clear today with standard medical practices.  We're all unknowingly part of the experiment!   Most medicine is focused on reacting to symptoms rather than trying to understand disease formation and preventing.   The primary treatments often mean man-made drugs.   These drugs often have nasty side effects, which you need more drugs to treat.  Many drugs have synergistic effects.  Most haven't been tested.   Even if they were tested and concluded poor results, the companies prohibit the publication of papers.  The FDA is undermanned and corrupted by a revolving door of Pharmacutical CEO's.

~ John