came after." Proliferating programs, also known as Health Humanities; Medicine, Literature, and Society; Bioethics and Humanities, et al. draw from the evolving canon of literature and medicine, which is now used in two-thirds of the 171 medical schools in the United States, with Selzer's stories and essays being a mainstay of the curriculum. Bioethics in literature Selzer wrote a 1976 Esquire essay, "What I Saw at the Abortion"; he drew readers into the fetus’ consciousness, which sparked fiery and divergent reactions. His engagement with public issues continued in the 1990 Redbook story, "Follow Your Heart," showing how organ transplants can tear one family apart and heal another, emotionally and spiritually. His 1991 essay in The New York Times'', "A Question of Mercy", describes how he was drawn into a mercy killing situation at a time well before Jack Kevorkian made physician-assisted suicide a subject of heated national debate. The attempt was botched because Selzer, fearful as he was of being charged with murder, could not be there to administer the final lethal dose. Selzer's exploration into the question of autonomy over the body continues to resonate in our culture today, with his literature bringing richer shades of truth than the political discourse allows. When Leon Kass, Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, included four of Selzer's pieces in the 2003 anthology Being Human: Readings from the President's Council on Bioethics, it underscored Kass's view of Selzer: "A man who lives with a knife, has his hands on organs, but preserves wonder and awe, is special." Teacher of medicine and literature Beginning in the 1950s, when he was in private practice and an assistant clinical professor at what is now the Yale School of Medicine, until 1985, Selzer was a voluntary medical school faculty member. He mentored aspiring writers, such as Erich Segal and John Irving, and held a medical student writing workshop at Yale from the early 1980s until 2011, when Lorence Gutterman took over. After retiring from medicine, he taught at such places as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Plays, art critiques, medical readers’ theater, and dance After retiring from medicine, Selzer wrote a play, The Black Swan, based on his short story. It was produced in St. Louis in 1994. Playwright David Rabe adapted Selzer's "A Question of Mercy" into a 1998 play performed at the Long