Better than Well (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Carl Elliott
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: Ethics and medicine
- Genres: Nonfiction, Health and medicine
- Subjects: Children, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Twenty-first century, Class consciousness, Surgery or surgeons, Self-confidence, Drugs, Amputation, amputees, or prosthetics, Medicine, Medical ethics, Cosmetics or makeup, Pharmacies or pharmacists, Profit
What does it mean for human beings to be themselves? Do cosmetic, surgical, and pharmaceutical interventions irrevocably alter the basic “stuff” of the person? Do such enhancements create a “new you”? Do beta-blockers taken to alleviate performance anxiety mask the identity of the performer, or do they simply make him or her better? Should people be encouraged, or even allowed, to have surgeries that are not needed medically but which they insist are needed psychologically? At what juncture does therapeutic mature into aberrant?
Ethicists struggle with these serious...
[The entire page is 1690 words long]
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