Tag: Ethics
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Clara Maass, yellow fever, and the early days of ethical medical testing
Mariel Tishma Chicago, Illinois, United States Clara Louise Maass portrait. Credit: National Museum of Health and Medicine. CC BY 2.0. Clara Maass was born on June 28, 1876, in the quiet New Jersey township of East Orange. The oldest daughter of Hedwig and Robert E. Maass, she grew up helping to raise and provide…
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Seeing things differently: A reflection on clinical photography
Michaela ClarkCape Town, South Africa Looking into the face of a patient is a necessary part of the clinical experience. Yet despite the physical proximity achieved in the doctor’s office, on the operating table, or in the petri dish, it is only when patients are perceived as legible objects that their bodies can be impartially…
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The other pain crisis
Adil MenonCleveland, Ohio, USA A guiding principle of medical care is that humans regardless of their superficial differences are fundamentally the same in their physiology. One of the oldest and most persistent refutations of this premise is the centuries old myth of a uniquely “African body,” characterized by diminished pain response and elevated stoicism, a…
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Corruption and organ trafficking in Egyptian medicine
Hossam Reda GhalabTanta, Egypt Healthcare for the indigent in developing countries often leaves much to be desired. Organ trafficking is rampant, its prevalence rising alarmingly and for some constituting a thriving business. In Egypt, each year hundreds of poor Egyptians sell their kidneys and livers in order to feed their families or pay off debts.…
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Religio Medici
Stefan GrebeRochester, Minnesota, United States Mama, take this badge off of me / I can’t use it anymore. / It’s gettin’ dark, too dark to see / I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Bob Dylan If the injured deputy in Bob Dylan’s lyrics had been living in today’s United States, he would have…
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George Orwell and the ethics of dealing in or dealing with cigarettes
Lynn T. KozlowskiBuffalo, NY, United States Early in World War II, George Orwell wrote the essay “England, my England,” commenting that as he was writing “highly civilized human beings” were flying overhead trying to kill him: They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing…
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Manga as medical critique
Adil MenonCleveland, Ohio, United States Stark lines are often drawn in American and European literature between graphic novels, which cater primarily to adults, and comics, which despite their broad appeal are perceived as being meant for younger audiences. No such dichotomy exists within the Japanese medium of manga, an expansive art form with works catering…
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The flu vaccine: Transparency, uncertainty, and trust in medicine
Anthony PapagiannisThessaloniki, Greece A few years ago the fear of ‘pandemic flu’ was spread widely all over the world, causing what has been termed an “emotional epidemic.”1 The disease itself, its social dimensions, and the ways it was publicly handled could form the subject for an academic thesis. Those events led me to a series of…
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On being disabled
Yeji LeeToronto, Canada In the past the disabled have often been isolated from the rest of society by structural, physical, and emotional means, considered irrelevant or even detrimental to the development and function of the larger majority. The lame could not physically work; the deaf and mute could not communicate with others; the blind could…