Bioethics Education: Non-Instrumental Value of Humanities

One of the ways that we introduce humanities to students in CBEC programs is through the use of the 1973 short story by Ursula Le Guin titled, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” The story requires a written submission to a question connected to the story. For many of our graduate students, most of whom are mid-career professionals associated with different aspects of healthcare and research, this is perhaps the first time that they are exposed to such a piece of literature. Throughout their educational journey within the field of medicine in Pakistan, their exposure to soft sciences is limited with a primary focus on the “rational” hard sciences.

Why this particular story, one may ask? Centering on a summer festival in the utopian city of Omelas, the story engages the reader with vivid imagery and brilliant use of metaphors that Le Guin masterfully weaves within the plot of the story. Readers find themselves immersed as the author highlights the perpetual happiness of Omelas which depends upon the imprisonment of a child in a small, dark cell and who can never be set free.

Le Guin narrates the joy of the citizens of Omelas and the misery of the child without offering any judgments on what she describes. Therefore, the story allows the readers to appreciate that human beings can employ different approaches to living a moral life, that there is a world that exists beyond black and white, and that there is no one single answer or one truth. Using this story is an endeavor to broaden the horizons of our students by getting them to think beyond the narrow confines of science and medicine.

We also use other pieces of work in the vast literature of medical humanities such as, “The Doctor’s Stories” by Richard Selzer that connect directly with medicine, disease and illness. Such texts attempt to “teach” students how to be good doctors and to get them in touch with their emotional sides. In contrast, Le Guin’s story allows students to appreciate various artistic expressions as in themselves, for them to enjoy the way the story is written, to conjure up images of the beautiful city of Omelas that the author so eloquently describes and imagine themselves in it. I view this story as a way of integrating humanities into our bioethics curriculum in a non-instrumental fashion.

While being popular, the assignment also poses a challenge for the students since it requires introspection into their inner selves. Over the years, they have approached this assignment in different ways since it leaves plenty of room for creative expression. As an example, one student picked up the story from where Le Guin leaves it by situating herself in the first-person narrative and taking us through the tumultuous thoughts that ran through her mind, and the emotions that tugged at her heart when the feeble and helpless child appealed to her to free him. Another student, a lawyer, approached the question through a purely analytical lens, stating all the facts upfront and then drawing upon relevant moral theories to reason her choice. Students’ backgrounds have also influenced their engagement with the story. A student from Africa drew a parallel between the misery of the child and happiness in Omelas to poverty in low-income regions being “inextricably linked” to the wealth of the rich countries. One physician, for example, deliberated upon the presence of both happiness and sadness in life as necessary conditions of human existence.

Since such texts highlight the centrality of human experience, it has also made students consider complex notions of happiness as well as the more profound question of a meaningful existence of human beings in the world. And that is perhaps an important element of an ethical inquiry – for individuals to look within themselves and reflect upon what constitutes a life worth living.