Over the years, the English requirement has become interpreted broadly. Many medical schools will consider as meeting the requirement courses (including those outside of an English department) in which writing papers* and reading is an important component. It may not be a great risk, but not being a risk taker myself I suggest taking the standard writing courses in an English Department. If your college has an English requirement for the degree, and it can be satisfied by non-English department courses, that may well be risk-free.
*I don't know, but I am sceptical that writing a paper for a science course or a research science course will meet the requirement. Two possible ways to deal with that: (1) if in doubt, leave it out (2) call medical schools and ask; this may be more trouble than taking two English courses.
A quick scan through the AAMC's MEDICAL SCHOOL ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS shows wide variation: some do not include English in the requirements, some say one year of English, UC-San Diego says "competence in speaking and writing English is required", Loma Linda: "equivalent to satisfy baccalaureate degree requirement", Kansas: "sufficient credits to meet the prerequisites for a liberal arts degree." You can see the picture.
