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Joanna Stephens and the Stone: credibility economy in the history of medicine
Perspect Biol Med. 2023;66(2):267-283. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2023.0014.ABSTRACTIn 1740, Joanna Stephens (fl. 1720-1741) produced a recipe for a tonic that she claimed cured bladder stones. Although she had the support of some notable and powerful men in the medical community and empirical evidence that her tonic worked, it took two years of petitioning, discussing, and even (unsuccessfully) crowd-sourcing before Parliament relented and awarded her the sum she requested to take her tonic public. Stephens's interaction with the scientific community serves as a case study for how epistemic credibility shapes how communities hear, ...
Source: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - September 27, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Julie Walsh Source Type: research

Out of This World: re-grounding justice through science fiction
Perspect Biol Med. 2023;66(2):284-298. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2023.0015.ABSTRACTGood science fiction can be a successful vehicle for portraying justice. Science fiction can stimulate moral imagination in much the same way as the most effective justice theories, connecting the world in which we live with a range of alternative futures deliberately and creatively made plausible. A selective examination of classic and recent science fiction stories and novels provides contextual framing for considering questions of climate justice, virtuous personal action in the face of structural injustice, and the problem of what justice means w...
Source: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - September 27, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Nancy M P King Larry R Churchill Source Type: research

Between the Spaces: graphic diagnosis
Perspect Biol Med. 2023;66(2):299-311. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2023.0016.ABSTRACTThis illustrated essay describes the graphic diagnosis memoir as a form of illness narrative that uses a different way of telling stories than standard prose. A cartoon is broken into sequenced segments that ask the reader to jump across the gaps between the panels at the same time as they bridge the images and text assembled in each panel. To be successful in presenting a graphic story, the artist must be able to express an idea, but also must be able to project, or imagine, how readers will be able link ideas, images, and words. The cartoon diagnos...
Source: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - September 27, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Annemarie Jutel Source Type: research

The Demise of the AMA's Mission to Improve Public Health
Perspect Biol Med. 2023;66(2):312-326. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2023.0017.ABSTRACTMuch has been written about the deplorable state of American health care, but rarely with the wealth of historical and political information packed into Peter Swenson's Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine (2021). In this meticulously researched and comprehensive study of the role of organized medicine, particularly the American Medical Association (AMA) and affiliated state and county medical societies, Swenson provides detailed insight into the AMA's political evolution from a force advocating progressive reforms ...
Source: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - September 27, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: John Abramson Source Type: research

Sickening: who is protecting pharma consumers?
Perspect Biol Med. 2023;66(2):327-343. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2023.0018.ABSTRACTIn 2022, John Abramson published Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Healthcare and How We Can Repair It. The book illustrates how large pharmaceutical companies have become misinformation machines that have corrupted peer-reviewed journals, systematic review authors, and guideline committees. Industry influence includes selective reporting of clinical trial results and selection of control groups likely to enhance benefits and disguise side effects. Other documented forms of influence include clear conflicts of interest for members of guideline...
Source: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - September 27, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Robert M Kaplan Source Type: research