This course will explore the human side of medicine and health care through engaging humanities texts in which patients and health care practitioners confront the biological and existential realities of illness, disease, and mortality. Students will encounter texts which provide personal narratives of individuals seeking healing, wholeness, and dignity in the midst of crisis and vulnerability. This course is especially tailored to students who are interested in being health care practitioners as well as those who want to more fully understand what it means to be human. The course fulfills one of the requirements for the Medical Humanities applied minor.