| Title |
Be careful what you wish for? Theoretical and ethical aspects of wish-fulfilling medicine
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, November 2007
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11019-007-9111-1 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Alena M. Buyx |
| Abstract |
There is a growing tendency for medicine to be used not to prevent or heal illnesses, but to fulfil individual personal wishes such as wishes for enhanced work performance, better social skills, children with specific characteristics, stress relief, a certain appearance or a better sex life. While recognizing that the subject of wish-fulfilling medicine may vary greatly and that it may employ very different techniques, this article argues that wish-fulfilling medicine can be described as a cohesive phenomenon with distinctive features. Following a few examples of well established wish-fulfilling medical practices and a brief definition of the phenomenon, both theoretical aspects and ethical implications of such practices are discussed and the question is raised how wish-fulfilling medicine should be evaluated from an ethical point of view. It is concluded that modern medicine is currently ill equipped to provide reasons why wish-fulfilling medicine should be banned or discouraged. The phenomenon of wish-fulfilling medicine serves as a prime example of the vagueness of the descriptive and the lack of decisive orientation of the normative categories employed in modern medicine. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 | 50% |
| Unknown | 1 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 2 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 21 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 1 | 5% |
| United States | 1 | 5% |
| Unknown | 19 | 90% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 4 | 19% |
| Student > Bachelor | 3 | 14% |
| Researcher | 3 | 14% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 2 | 10% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 3 | 14% |
| Unknown | 5 | 24% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 4 | 19% |
| Philosophy | 3 | 14% |
| Social Sciences | 2 | 10% |
| Psychology | 2 | 10% |
| Arts and Humanities | 1 | 5% |
| Other | 2 | 10% |
| Unknown | 7 | 33% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 October 2015.
All research outputs
#13,755,002
of 22,830,751 outputs
Outputs from Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
#312
of 593 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#64,549
of 76,825 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
#4
of 5 outputs
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