HW#19

            Using the dominant practice in our society relating to health and death as a basis, I formed a small list that included all we have learned about in class. The organization of this list was a simple yes or no format in which the subjects taking the survey agreed or disagreed with the commonplace medicines and methods of taking care of the sick. In this case, I used my parents and the survey takers and received interesting feedback about the American culture and the obvious differences in treatment. For the most part my parents felt that when a person is sick, all of their requests should be attended to and only “happiness” should be shared with them; meaning that you should agree with anything they say and laugh at any jokes and pretend like everything is perfectly fine. But at what point do these perspectives stop being cultural and become more personal? From my own understanding about our dominant cultural perspectives, medicine and hospitals are what we rely on extensively to nurse us back to health instead of directly applying ourselves to the lives of those in need. Because of the highly influential power of the government, taking care of our sick is not as easy as it should be and once was.

           Despite our biggest wishes to personally take care of the sick because of our moral beliefs and/or religion, we cannot because of the high expenses and time issues that would lead us to deal with. Because of this, hospitals have become the more common decision despite the unfair treatment you receive if you do not have health care. As a result of that, death rates in immigrants and low income families sky rocket and no one cares. Unlike some countries where healthcare is equal and the sick are treated more justly without having to determine if their financial background is suitable enough.

          When I first read this assignment I decided to write about my understanding of the dominant culture perspectives and what my parents thought about it, but in the assignment I noticed a word that I did not recognize. When asked to include modality I did not know what to talk about so I looked up the definition. The two definitions given were “a classification of propositions on the basis of whether they claim necessity or possibility or impossibility,” and “a method of therapy that involves physical or electrical therapeutic treatment.” At first I was a little confused because from what I understood, it was basically saying that it is a classification of a possible choice depending on whether or not it’s necessary, possible, or impossible. But how is this related to the second definition which states it’s a form of therapy? Despite how unrelated the two seem, its basically describing the moment in which doctors must decide if their patients are suitable for treatment of if they have to do it because if not they will die; as well as providing a summary of how the health care system works in the United States. I may be jumping to conclusions about his interesting definition but it appears to be an odd coincidence that deserves further interpretation.