A sad day
It's been kind of a rough month, and I guess bad things come in packages: my father-in-law died this morning. I seldom talk about this kind of thing in my LJ, but I think this merits an exception, because he was a remarkable man, and his life, and accomplishments, were so amazing. He fled from Nazi Germany in 1939 when he was 17 and ended up in this country - which he loved - without a penny to his name, speaking barely a word of English. He made it to Harvard Medical School, became a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst (did his psychoanalytic training with Eric Erikson), served in the Air Force for two years during the Korean War, and ended up at Yale Medical School. After a few years he began working at the law school; eventually he became a professor there for over 40 years and was a pioneer in many areas of legal/medical interdisciplinary studies, particularly issues relating to medical ethics and human experimentation, and also issues relating to reproductive technology law and ethics and family law.
He was an outspoken opponent of the use of data obtained from the Nazi experiments and was one of the first to call for a national board to oversee human experimentation. He served on the national panel that studied and exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, which began in 1932 and was not uncovered until the 1970s, and later he was appointed by Clinton to the Presidential Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.
The doctor/patient relationship was a huge concern of his. He was a member of a committee that drafted the Connecticut law governing the privilege between patient and psychotherapist, which was enacted in 1961 and served as a model for the Federal Rules of Evidence for all 50 states. He was a passionate proponent of the concept of truly informed patient consent and wrote extensively on the subject. In 2006, his book "The Silent World of Doctor and Patient," about the relationship between patient and doctor, the typical paternalism of doctors, and the true meaning of "informed" consent, was listed on the Wall Street Journal's top five books on turning points in modern medicine.
He loved teaching and was adored and revered by decades worth of Yale Law School students (including Hillary Clinton). He was a brilliant man, a rare and amazing intellect, a man who had a deep and geniune love and infectious enthusiasm for "the life of the mind" - someone once described him as "comfortable with ambiguity," a quality I admire deeply - and he was a kind one. Kind, generous, and unusually empathetic.
He had been failing for years, physically and mentally, and had declined precipitously in recent months. His last years weren't kind to him - which seems so grossly unfair for a man who savored life so much. So in a way it's almost a relief that he's no longer suffering. It was so hard to see him...trapped in that failing body, without the mental faculties that formed the basis of his life's work. But it's still a profound loss, especially for Mr. J, who was very close to him. He will be so deeply missed.
I will miss him.
He was an outspoken opponent of the use of data obtained from the Nazi experiments and was one of the first to call for a national board to oversee human experimentation. He served on the national panel that studied and exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, which began in 1932 and was not uncovered until the 1970s, and later he was appointed by Clinton to the Presidential Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.
The doctor/patient relationship was a huge concern of his. He was a member of a committee that drafted the Connecticut law governing the privilege between patient and psychotherapist, which was enacted in 1961 and served as a model for the Federal Rules of Evidence for all 50 states. He was a passionate proponent of the concept of truly informed patient consent and wrote extensively on the subject. In 2006, his book "The Silent World of Doctor and Patient," about the relationship between patient and doctor, the typical paternalism of doctors, and the true meaning of "informed" consent, was listed on the Wall Street Journal's top five books on turning points in modern medicine.
He loved teaching and was adored and revered by decades worth of Yale Law School students (including Hillary Clinton). He was a brilliant man, a rare and amazing intellect, a man who had a deep and geniune love and infectious enthusiasm for "the life of the mind" - someone once described him as "comfortable with ambiguity," a quality I admire deeply - and he was a kind one. Kind, generous, and unusually empathetic.
He had been failing for years, physically and mentally, and had declined precipitously in recent months. His last years weren't kind to him - which seems so grossly unfair for a man who savored life so much. So in a way it's almost a relief that he's no longer suffering. It was so hard to see him...trapped in that failing body, without the mental faculties that formed the basis of his life's work. But it's still a profound loss, especially for Mr. J, who was very close to him. He will be so deeply missed.
I will miss him.