“Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.” — Paul Kalanithi. When Breath Becomes Air
Real life is messy; people are complicated and very little in health is black and white. Medical ethics and humanities aims to promote and develop an appreciation of what it is to be human, for both doctor and patient as they traverse suffering and healing together.
This resource web is created to supply existing curricula at HKU. It is not designed only for our medical students but also for anyone who is interested in the world of medical humanities to explore, converse and eventually co-produce useful knowledge and tools to cultivate reflective healthcare professionals and a compassionate community.
The Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit (MEHU) was formed in 2012 under LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, to develop, integrate and coordinate the teaching and learning in ethics and humanities for undergraduate medical students. The unit consists of scholars from humanities and clinical backgrounds, offering innovative teaching to cultivate students’ competency in narratives, cultural sensitivity, perspective taking, critical thinking, professionalism and resilience.