Sammy's Dot

I’ve been reading Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society: Towards a new modernity over the past few weeks. I have a lot to say about it, but it’s been slow going: I’m not sure if I picked up a particularly awkward translation, or if it’s simply the way sociologists like to write, but picking apart the language has been frustrating.

However, towards the end of the book, I’ve hit on a phrase that I really can’t get past without a brief comment:

“One can argue whether medicine has actually improved the well-being of humanity.” (Beck, 1992, p. 204)

No. No, one really can’t argue about whether medicine has improved the well-being of humanity. One could argue that some medical advances have brought consequences of their own, which I think Beck does. One can certainly argue that the benefits of medicine have been inequitably shared, so that the well-being of some has been improved, but not that of others.

One cannot argue that the possibility of surviving cancer is not an improvement in human well-being. The fact that a diagnosis of diabetes is no longer a death sentence certainly improves well-being. It is a fact that those of us with access to modern medicine can live longer, and often stay active and alert longer, and I would call that a very definite improvement to human well-being. Though these improvements are individual, their social effects are real too: for example, most children in the developed world now grow up without losing a parent or a sibling to  disease. Can it really be suggested that that isn’t a social good?

It’s well worth analyzing the practice of medicine to try to identify where our current knowledge and understanding is inadequate. It’s important that the nature of unintended side effects be studied. It’s certainly necessary to talk about what constitutes an ethical medical practice, and to talk about the social and cultural impact of more people living longer. It’s imperative that we find ways to ensure that everyone, everywhere, has access to decent medicine.

I think it’s hard to have those worthwhile discussions if one starts from the premise that the value of medicine to society is questionable in and of itself.

She is coming home.

However, I won’t be satisfied until I hear something about an apology, and compensation, and preferably a resignation.