Mutter Museum

I have to admit that I did find parts of the documentary to be a little gross. I do think that the museum had good intentions of educating medical students, and that their original goal was not to make a profit off of the general public. Whether or not that is true today, I am not sure.

The part that bothered me the most was actually the museum in France(?) considered to be the cousin to the Mutter. The way that the cadavers were posed in that museum were done in such a way that I do not believe those bodies were respected. Even the way that they were dissected and preserved was not done in a serious manner in my opinion. To have the muscles and other tissues pulled away from the body and sticking out into the air was distasteful in my opinion. In that sense, I would have to guess that that particular museum caters more to the general public by making it a "freak show". I think that the Mutter Museum for the most part, did what it could to present their pieces in a tasteful way. Some of their materials were irrelevant to the education of medical students I thought. But then again those particular pieces could have been seen as providing cultural information. 

Erin Pattridge

El Museo

I found it interesting that in the smack middle of the main staircase was a statue of the Greek god of health.   It seems to embody the ideal perfection that doesn't exist in the realm of imperfect humans. 


I also thought it is possible that the museum is economically "cornered" into sensationalizing the displays and adding a gift shop to attract a paying visitor.  How else can they preserve and continue the center.  I think any person or group under pressure would resort to questionable measures to "survive".  Something to think about.
~ John

"Oddities"

This week, while watching the documentary film on the Muller Museum, I thought of the show “Oddities,” a cable program which airs on the Discovery Channel. “Oddities” is a sort of documentary/reality television program which features the day-to-day business of an antique shop. They boast at being involved in “weird world of strange and extraordinary science artifacts.” Odd items bought and sold by the shop and featured on the show have included a mummified cat, shrunken heads, art made from nail clippings, a book bound with human flesh, a straitjacket, and a human heart with a bullet plunged inside. “Oddities” has also featured a vast variety of different medical instruments.

This show demonstrates the interweaving worlds of entertainment, consumerism, and scientific medicine. We are not only viewing a show about the “oddities” which often features body parts and medical instruments, but one that features people--often depicted as odd themselves--purchasing these items for their own personal entertainment and collection. We are able to not only satisfy our visual senses and our need for entertainment, but are able to observe deviancy, the “odd,” and the history of medicine.

Angela

Medicalization of Birth

I once was given the opportunity to ask my grandmother about pregnancy, labor, and childbirth. It was the medical treatment of her birth that I was most interested in, and I was forced to recall upon this event when reading about the medicalization of childbirth. I feel that her story truly demonstrates the essence of the treatment of childbirth as a medical event, the influences of physicians, medical instruments, and drugs in her childbirth experience.

My grandmother gave birth to her first child in the year 1955. On the night she gave birth, she had initially gone to the doctor’s earlier in the day, where she was told she wasn’t ready. Later that night, she went into labor. She and her mother arrived at the hospital, and every time the nurse would leave she would get up and walk around. She said, “It felt so much better when you were able to move around.” Within a small window of time she was (purportedly) put to sleep, but in reality the doctor had given her a drug called scopolamine. This drug actually does not put patients to sleep, but erases the memory of the incident, while the patient experiences a “twilight sleep.” This begs an unavoidable question:


If birth is proven to be an empowering, enriching experience, why steal that away from women?


In this nightmarish state, my grandmother remembered hearing voices saying "push," telling her not to scream because she’d "suck the baby back in." She also heard someone reply that she couldn't help it. She then saw the forceps which the doctor used to pull her daughter out. My grandmother said, “It was awful, and she had little red marks on her head from them for weeks.” When forceps are used without proper standard of care it can cause the baby great harm, such as nerve damage, brain damage, or a deformed head.

My grandmother regained consciousness and a nurse asked how she was feeling. She responded, “I feel as if I’m floating up to the ceiling.” I laughed at this thinking it was the side effects of the drug, until my grandmother said that the nurse checked her and had found that she was hemorrhaging. The nurse ran out of the room and called the doctor. My grandmother recalls how he came in and began screaming at the nurses, “You sons of bitches!”

My grandmother said that he called them more names than that, too. She ultimately received 5 pints of blood and was required to have a nurse massage her belly for 24 hrs. She remained in the hospital for about a week and then was instructed to remain in bed for 3 weeks.

I believe that my grandmother gave me the opportunity to examine what is considered normative medicine practice and to constantly ask "why?"

Angela

The Mutter Museum

Today in class we watched a documentary about the Mutter Museum and when and how it started. It also showed some of the exhibits that are shown in the museum. The film stated that it exhibits human bodies as science. It also said that it was originally made for doctors and medical students to learn about human bodies while they are studying and eventually it became open to the public. This is relevant to today's world because it shows the public how medicine has changed and also the history of medicine. It also shows some of the practices that we do not think we should use today that were used in the past. In class many people felt that alot of these displays are not needed any more such as the shrunken heads. I however believe that all of these displays have a purpose and that they are all equally important. By having all of these displays open to the public we are able to see the progress in science and medicine that we have made. It also shows us that some diseases are biological and it can give us a better understanding to what people are dealing with so that we do not judge people who look different from us. An example of this is the exhibit of the Bunker twins, it is important because we have twins born all the time and doctors need to understand what causes conjoined twins to happen to that they can try to prevent it or atleast know how to separate them after they are born.

Happy Lives in Society?

(Sorry that this post is so late, Jeff)

Werewolf Girl:
http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/23/9640657-happy-werewolf-girl-says-shes-proud-of-being-special

After seeing this on the Today Show and MSNBC, I was shocked that nobody brought this up in class.  There is apparently an eleven year old girl named Supatra who is affectionately known as "werewolf girl."  Take a look at the picture on the link above.  She says that she is happy to have friends and to be treated well.  However, doesn't the very fact that she is named "werewolf girl" say enough about how she is perceived by society?  Will she be able to find a job? Anyone have thoughts?

Women

Between the two articles the Weitz article really stood out to me and related so much to the article on the two conjoined twins Duan and Dao. When the doctors were separating them they made sure to state that both girls would be deemed “normal” because they both would have reproductive organs and be able to bare children. The Weitz article talked about the definition of being a woman is the ability to have bear children. Is that how women are viewed; not only yesterday, but today?  Duan and Dao where born in the 1990’s and still they were seen as a person based upon their organs. When we see a women an older women without any children we as a society ask ourselves what is wrong with her. When we see an older man do we ask the same questions?

 Another interesting fact brought up in the Weitz article was that women today are still being denied jobs because the working conditions could harm a pregnant workers fetus but they let a man do the same job that could potential damage the man’s sperm.  Shouldn’t men and women  carry the same risks … every human gets half the genetic makeup of both parents .

-Sarah Fiorella