text: does anyone know the story of dr. alfred blalock and vivien thomas? if so...? i have an argumentative in-class essay tomorrow and maybe you could help me with this question. if you know the story any input would be great! i'm kind of lost, lol.  1) vivien thomas (should/should not) have abandoned his scientific work at johns hopkins university to fulfill his dreams of attending college and medical school.    or  2) had he earned a medical degree, vivien thomas (could/could not) have made even greater contributions to scientific research.  we are to pick a side (should/shouldn't or could/couldn't) and come up with 3 valid reasons why using facts from the movie about this story. the movie is called "something the lord made". vivien thomas could not have have abandoned his scientific work at johns hopkins university to fulfill his dreams of attending college and medical school. but he should have.  1. he deserved the opportunity to attend medical school. it was his dream. he did all the scientific work in the discovery of open heart surgery and had no credentials to support his findings. therefore, he gave dr. blalock the opportunity to take credit for his accomplishments. but as it was previously mentioned, the time in which the event took place has to be taken in consideration. even if he had finished medical school, it is possible that he would not have received the proper credit. he just wasted alot of time, and until recently had little to show for it. and furthermore, had he the opportunity to attain his medical degree, he could have the autonomy to develop his own research.   2. one would be remiss in not mentioning the fact that blalock's pride kept him from allowing this to happen. blalock was well aware of the credentials that thomas needed in order to have any credibility. and in the film blalock's wife called this fact to his attention. thomas was also aware that he was being short-changed. thomas was in a position where he had to think about being able to provide for his family. but as long as they had been struggling on the poor salary that was he was being paid to work as a research assistant, he could have finished medical school twice. thomas didn't realize that he was in a position of power. blalock believed that he couldn't do his valuable work without thomas. thomas could have totally made his participation in the study contingent on the funding of his studies.  3. in the event that he decided that he didn't want to work on blalock's study, he would still have a professional degree to fall back on. and i believe that thomas realized that. if he decided to leave the study he would have to work as a janitor or handyman, and he had specialized training as a surgeon. it would have been humiliating. and that fact gave blalock the advantage, because even though thomas wasn't a physician, he still had the prestige of being a part of history.