Directions: Answer ONE the question below. The page titled, Reflection Rubric, will be used to access this reflection. It can be found on the left side (third from top) under pages. When finished, print off your response and hand in or email it to Mr. S. Use the following information in your response.
Catholic catechism provide seven answers:
- Humans are created in the image and likeness of God.
- Humans are called to happiness and holiness.
- Humans are rational and free.
- Humans are moral beings.
- Humans have passions or feelings.
- Humans are blessed with a conscience.
- Humans are able to sin.
1. Just after Dr. Malcolm Sayer got his job at the chronic hospital, he was taken on a tour of the facility. During that tour, the following conversation occurred:
Dr. Sayer: “Excuse me. What are all these people waiting for?
Guide: “They’re not”
Dr. Sayer: “How are they supposed to get well?”
Guide: “They’re not. They’re chronic. We call this place the garden. All we do is feed and water.”
What does this conversation tell you about the view of the patients in the chronic hospital? Does the hospital staff see these patients as human? Explain, using one or more of the statements in the Catholic catechism, if the catatonic patients are human or not.
OR
2. Dr. Sayer discusses his post-encephalic, catatonic patients with a doctor who once treated them. The retired doctor describe these patients as, “insubstantial as ghosts”, “children who fell asleep” and as “people who were once normal but are now elsewhere”. Leonard’s mother when describing her son’s progression said, “He never spoke again. It was like he disappeared”. Were these people dead (not in a physical sense)? Explain. If these patients seem “dead”, then are these patients human? Explain using one or more of the statements in the Catholic catechism.