An integral approach to health science and healthcare
AbstractDefining disease and delineating its boundaries is a contested area in contemporary philosophy of medicine. The leading naturalistic theory faces a new round of difficulties related to defining a normal environment alongside normal organismic functioning and to delineating a discrete boundary between risk factors and disease. Normative theories face ongoing and seemingly intractable difficulties related to value pluralism and the problematic relation between theory and practice. In this article, I argue for an integral —as opposed to a hybrid—philosophy of health based on Bernard Lonergan’s notion ofgeneraliz...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - January 30, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
“Big eye” surgery: the ethics of medicalizing Asian features
AbstractThe popularity of surgical modifications of race-typical features among Asian women has generated debates on the ethical implications of the practice. Focusing on blepharoplasty as a representative racial surgery, this article frames the ethical discussion by viewing Asian cosmetic surgery as an example of medicalization, which can be interpreted in two forms: treatment versus enhancement. In the treatment form, medicalization occurs by considering cosmetic surgery as remedy for pathologized Asian features; the pathologization usually occurs in reference to western features as the norm. In the enhancement form, med...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - January 18, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Jochen Vollmann, Verena Sandow, Sabastian W äscher, and Jan Schildmann (eds): The ethics of personalised medicine: critical perspectives
(Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - January 16, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Indeterminacy and the principle of need
AbstractThe principle of need —the idea that resources should be allocated according to need—is often invoked in priority setting in the health care sector. In this article, I argue that a reasonable principle of need must be indeterminate, and examine three different ways that this can be dealt with: appendicizing the princ iple with further principles, imposing determinacy, or empowering decision makers. I argue that need must be conceptualized as a composite property composed of at least two factors: health shortfall and capacity to benefit. When one examines how the different factors relate to each other, one disco...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - December 30, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Susan R. Holman: Beholden: religion, global health, and human rights
(Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - December 30, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
