Nurturing personal and professional conscience in an age of corporate globalisation: Bill Viola’s The Passions

Faunce, Thomas A

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb00047.x

Topics

Exploring the “norms” or principles of bioethics, health law and international human rights is central to personal and professional development courses of contemporary medical schools. Despite the increasing popularity of using the insights of fine art and literature (particularly through resources such as the New York University Literature, Arts and Medicine Database1), how these dovetail with the former objectives remains something of an academic puzzle. Further, curricula use of the medical humanities often meets with scepticism and disinterest from exam-oriented students.

Medical School and Law Faculty, Australian National University, Acton, ACT.

Correspondence:

Acknowledgements:

Bill Viola: The Passions (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 29 July – 6 November 2005) was organised by the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Thanks to Lucina Ward, Lisa Cargill and Robyn Daw at the Gallery for their dedicated assistance with this article. Thanks also for research assistance to Stefan Baku, graduate medical student, ANU Medical School.

Competing interests:

I am the Project Director of an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant to investigate the impact of international trade agreements on access to medicines in Australia. The ARC was not involved in the preparation of this article.

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