ovdje - Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo

JONAS E. SALK –
A PARTICIPANT IN THE EXPERIMENT CALLED LIFE
The aim of this paper is to present and learn about Jonas E. Salk,
founder of the poliomyelitis vaccine and establisher of biophilosophy. After
a brief historical-medical review of events related to the occurrence of
the disease, available and described in medical journals, follows a part on
the lesser known human stories and lives of people who have focused their
professional and humane work on the fight against poliomyelitis. In due
order, this paper is firstly about Jonas E. Salk, a medical researcher history
remembers as founder of the vaccine against poliomyelitis, the public
glorifies as saviour and benefactor, the media remembers and reminds us
of his discovery on occasion of the anniversary of proclaiming the vaccine
safe and effective, whom politics takes as an example of a humanitarian,
and whose works, listed in bibliographic information in the field of
philosophy, philosophers-ethicists and educators are beginning to explore.
Then follows the story of Jessie Wright, doctor of physical medicine who,
at the time of the first testing of the vaccine, was medical director of the DC
Watson Home for Crippled Children, Richard Joseph Mulvaney, a family
physician, who administered the first Salk vaccine, Bill Kirkpatrick, the
first child affected by the poliomyelitis virus to whom the vaccine was
administered. Commitment to present and publish their fateful connection,
just as life has made it, arose from the fact that this has not yet been done,
and from the fact that alongside Jonas E. Salk, active were also participants
and witnesses of the greatest public health experiment in the history of
medicine. Presented in the final part of the paper is one of Salk’s books,
Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason that has been chosen
for this paper for two reasons. The first, because in it we get to know Salk
– the researcher, his expectations, primal desire to help suppress the disease,
his reflections in the laboratory, compassion for those who get relief
from his work, his hope in anticipation of the results of research and sense
of responsibility for the testing and use of his finding. The second is in the
request for an inclusion of philosophy in the systematic analysis and interpretation
of dangers contemporary man faces for the purpose of preserving
and protecting health, value orientations aimed at questioning scientific
work/research and consequences it creates.
61