Medical Knowledge

Medicine’s Valuing of “Normal” Cognitive Ability

Functionalists describe the role of medicine as maintaining the “normal” functioning of individuals and society . Definitions of normal functioning, however, are subjective, determined by cultural and personal values. Medicine’s values and the resulting explanatory model of disease do, in…

What Does Ethics Demand of Health Care Practice in Conflict Zones?

Human rights violations in armed conflict against community members, displaced persons, and health workers include combatants’ uses of threats and coercion, attacks on health facilities, and abuses against civilians. Traditional clinical and public health ethical obligations are not sufficient to…

Traumatic Imagination in Traditional Stories of Gender-Based Violence

Traumatic imagination includes creative processes in which traumatic memories are transformed into narratives of suffering. This article emphasizes the importance of storytelling in victims’ mental health and offers a literary perspective on how some women’s experiences of suffering can be…

Everyone Is Harmed When Clinicians Aren’t Prepared

War and conflict are now common, lingering like an endemic disease in most countries of the Global South. Population displacement, infectious disease outbreaks, food and water shortages, damage to infrastructure, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress are among the phenomena to which…

Ethics Talk: Unblinding COVID-19 Vaccine Trials

In this video edition of Ethics Talk, journal editor in chief, Dr Audiey Kao, talks with Dr Steven Goodman about the ethical and scientific implications of unblinding COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Which Skills Are Key to Public Health Leaders’ Success in Crisis Management?

Under-resourced and fragmented public health infrastructure has contributed to a poor pandemic response in the United States. There have been calls to redesign the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to increase its budget. Lawmakers also have introduced bills…