Margaret Edson's play, "Wit," portrays a terminal ovarian cancer patient, Vivian Bearing, who goes through an experimental chemotherapy program that her doctor suggested. Through this process of receiving the experimental treatment, Vivian Bearing faces objectification from her doctor and his students. Objectification of patients is of a common occurrence in the healthcare field whether one wishes or not. The doctor that objectifies Bearing is only interested in the results of the experiment due to operant conditioning. The possible positive reinforcements he could achieve from the chemotherapy treatment that Bearing has to go through could benefit him immensely. In the play, Wit, written by Margaret Edson, Vivian Bearing is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Through her time in the hospital, Dr. Bearing faces many challenges other than the pain from her terminal ovarian cancer and side effects from an experimental chemotherapy program. She has to face being objectified by the health professionals while she attempts to recover from such a fatal illness; the way that Dr. Bearing is objectified is connected to operant conditioning. .
Near the end of the play, there is a scene when Vivian Bearing is experiencing unbearable pain and can barely breathe because of the immense torture. Susie wants to help Dr. Bearing by getting an analgesic that is controlled by the patient. This allows the patient to decide how much medication they want depending on the amount of pain the patient is experiencing. The importance is that Susie wants Dr. Bearing to have the choice of the amount of medication she gets. When Dr. Kelekian and Jason finally arrive, Dr. Kelekian demands a morphine drip for Dr. Bearing without even a second thought of Dr. Bearing's wishes and desires. This is seen when Dr. Kelekian says "morphine, ten push now, then start at ten an hour. Dr. Bearing, try to relax. We're going to help you through this, don't worry.