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Author: Sophie L. Schott

Sophie L. Schott is a poet, ethicist, and researcher at UT Austin. Her writing probes at the multidimensional meaning of her academic pursuits and explores how the humanities might ameliorate some of the indelicacies of illness and human suffering. After completing her undergraduate medical education, Schott aspires to pursue a career as a physician-poet and clinical ethicist.

History of Present Illness

Inspired by reflections on the current Covid-19 pandemic and recalling AMA debates over the “duty to treat” HIV and AIDS patients in the 1980s, Sophie Schott has crafted a poem that challenges us not to repeat history by refusing to treat marginalized patients. “History of Present Illness” questions whether clinicians should be guided by personal preferences or by a higher calling.

Constellation Syndrome

In this exquisite poem, Sophie L. Schott conveys the language that envelops a mother and her infant son, surrounded by complex medical equipment and imagining another narrative, a life not “seen through the telescope of sickness.”