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(More customer reviews)American Journal of Bioethics: excerpt of review by Kathy Nolan
Andrew Thompson and Norman Temple and the contributors to Ethics, Medical Research, and Medicine: Commercialism versus Environmentalism and Social Justice are clearly unhappy with the realm of traditional bioethics "puzzlers." They propose leaving behind the parochial worldview they find to dominate contemporary medicine and bioethics in favor of a broader and more socially conscious "environmental" point of view, and they propose concrete standards to guide medical research within the new perspective. . . .
As a book aimed at upsetting prevailing paradigms, this collection begins by striking at the core assumptions grounding modern medical research: claiming first, there are no truly "lifesaving technologies" and second, sophisticated and costly new technologies are largely impotent -- and sometimes actively harmful -- when faced with the real needs of individuals to enhance their health and enrich their lives. "To start with, the term 'lifesaving' is really a misnomer. There is a hint of immortality about it, as if the person whose life is 'saved' lives happily ever after, even eternally; ... The accurate expression is 'life-extending'. (p. 10) Meanwhile, more valuable activities, such as education, social justice, and environmental protection "lose out to medicine in the competition for available resources." (p. 10) . . .
Paradigms are essential to human inquiry. Researchers, however, tend to ignore findings that threaten the prevailing paradigm or provide support to a new and competing paradigm. Perhaps one of the key functions of this book, and indeed, of bioethics in contemporary society is to prevent such short-sightedness. I recommend it particularly for students of ethics and of the medical and health care sciences, who may use it as ballast as they are inundated with the prevailing paradigms of their chosen disciplines. Others with sufficient moral courage and curiosity should also seek it out, for, as Kuhn observed, when a true paradigm shift takes place, our world is not only qualitatively transformed but also quantitatively enriched.
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The authors of this book examine critically, and in a uniqueway, the poverty of medical ethics. They argue against spending almostunlimited amounts of money on medical treatment, and explore theserious biases in the way that medical research is conducted. Inparticular, they document how commercialization of research,especially in the pharmaceutical industry, leads to seriouslydistorted information being disseminated to physicians. The authorsillustrate these problems using four examples: statin drugs, screeningfor breast and prostate cancer, genetic diagnosis and therapy, and theSwan ganz catheter. The book contrasts the greatly exaggerated meritsof these medical practices with the clear advantages of a preventionapproach. The book makes radical proposals for reforming theseproblems. It is a must-read for those interested in medical ethics,health policy, health economics, and medicine.
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