This is a critical response to Atul Gawande’s book, Being Mortal. Your response should place Gawande’s book and ideas in the context of our class discussions about issues in science and medicine (in both academic contexts such as Emily’s Martin’s article and in general writing, such as Gawande’s essay on medical training). The critical response requires synthesis and your reaction. It should develop an overarching point/claim, and it should be supported with examples from Gawande’s text. This response should be 2-3 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 point font. You must cite the texts you are using in either footnotes or ‘in text’ citations.
Prompts
1. Aging: Gawande’s book addresses different problems around aging. What are they? What sorts of institutional responses has American society given them? What philosophical issues do these problems raise? Why is aging a significant concept to consider?
2. The idea of a good death. Gawande’s anecdotes often involve death and dying. But as the book and its overall story develops, how does Gawande present aspects of the ‘good death’? What, for Gawande, does a good death entail (address the who-what-where-when-how)? Your reaction may also illustrate Gawande’s ideas through contrasts to ‘bad’ deaths. Conclude your response with a reaction to these ideas.
3. Model Practitioner. Gawande’s book addresses the role of medical practitioners in aging and dying. For Gawande, what constitutes a model practitioner? What is needed for that practitioner to succeed? What ethical issues must the practitioner consider? Is this model practitioner appropriate only for aging patients and dying patients?
4. A topic of your own (but you must describe it to me beforehand).
RUBRIC IDEAS:
A. To what extent does this response paper convey the main ideas of Gawande’s argument clearly and coherently?
B. To what extent does this response paper engage with the specific ideas of the prompt through careful study of Gawande’s book?
C. To what extent has this response paper developed a core set of ideas with evidence from the text?
D. Has this response paper cited sources effectively?
E. Writing: to what extent are paragraphs organized around topic sentences that present the main idea of the paragraph?; to what extent has the writer connected sentences within a paragraph, using information flow to help the reader?; to what extent is this response paper edited for grammatical correctness?