Teaching at the University of Texas Medical Branch, 1971–1974: Humanities, Ethics, or Both?

Abstract

This chapter recounts the history of the creation of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). The genesis of the Institute goes back to the 1940s and 1950s where the first reflections on medical humanities and medical history appeared in the minutes of the UTMB archives. As a result, Dr. Chauncey Leake, vice-president and dean of UTMB between 1942 and 1955, hired philosopher Dr. Patrick Romanell to join the faculty of UTMB to teach philosophy and ethics. However, the real push for the creation of a unit focusing on medical humanities took place in the 1970s when P.L. Hendricks, a medical student, wrote a letter to the Chancellor of the University of Texas advocating for the creation of a department of medical humanities. The history of UTMB is relevant beyond the institution itself or the UT system. It sheds light on the struggle to determine the role of medical humanities and medical ethics in medical education in the United States. This struggle is far from over, and many other medical schools around the country could draw inspiration from the UTMB experiment in developing their own programs in medical humanities and bioethics.