International Helath Humanities Network: Humanities Subject Area Reports

Professional health care education in ethics often centres upon considering perceived ethical problems or dilemmas in clinical practice utilising external and deductive tools such as ethical principles (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice), ethical guidelines and codes of professional conduct. Engagement with the arts and humanities offers a different perspective centring on a teleological ethic characterised by attention to ends (e.g. human flourishing), cultivation of virtue, the telling of narrative, recognising relationality and acknowledging contextual factors.

University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS), Delhi was the first medical school in India to inculcate humanities among medical students, as well as among teaching and non-teaching staff, in the form of a ‘Medical Humanities Group (MHG)’. Initially the activities were directed towards sharing literature on medical humanities, with a bias to our own culture; these include poetry in the Indian languages (Hindi) initially. Student-led meetings in faculty presence were held during lunchtime in the inaugural year. From the second year of conception, ‘Confluence’ was contrived as a colloquium whereby art and medicine could be discussed and appreciated in togetherness. It began as a lecture series comprising of eminent guest lectures.

Arts and Humanities Research Council Workshop on Ecology, Health and Literature

Date: 30th March 2012