In January 2016 a powerful white male doctor sexually assaulted a black female patient at one of the most prestigious academic hospitals in the U.S. It happened right in the emergency room, a place she came to hoping for care, and initially no one believed her. When semen analysis showed that she was, in fact,… Read More »
American medical students, physicians and nurses: There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that our health care system and many of its workers are sick. The good news is that we can heal them. We should waste no time in starting. Health care is a big business, and our system reimburses hospitals… Read More »
For years I have ranted about the flaws of medicine, especially when it comes to mental illness and cancer. But my complaints are mild compared to those of Jacob Stegenga, a philosopher of science at the University of Cambridge. In Medical Nihilism, published by Oxford University Press, Stegenga presents a devastating critique of medicine. Most treatments, he argues, do… Read More »
On July 4, 1934, a 30-year-old New York-based writer and publicist named Marty Mann got staggeringly drunk at a party and fell from a balcony. She nearly died, fracturing her leg and breaking her jaw, and spent the next six months in traction. In the hospital, with her jaw wired shut, she begged friends to… Read More »