Abstract
The first part of this article shows that oureffective means to know and modify directly thehuman genetic make-up generates singular anddifficult situations for the application offundamental medical categories. Specifically,we demonstrate that in dealing with thesesituations, some predominant views on health,such as descriptivism or that which reduces thestate of health to not having presentdisabilities, cannot provide adequate answerseither from the point of view of medicalscience or in terms of our ordinary intuitions.The second part of the article examines thereasons for the failure of these views totackle the mentioned situations, proposessolutions to urgent problems and, finally,offers some foundations for an alternativetheoretical development, id est, for atheory of health able to satisfactorilyintegrate our genetic dimension.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alton et al.: 1998, 'Towards Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis: A Clinical Progress Report', Gene Therapy 5, 291-292.
Bayertz, K.: 1997, 'What's Special About Molecular Genetic Diagnostics?', The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 23, 247-254.
Boorse, C.: 1975, 'On the Distinction Between Disease and Illness', Philosophy and Public Affairs 5, 49-68.
Boorse, C.: 1977, 'Health as a Theoretical Concept', Philosophy of Science 44, 542-573.
Boorse, C.: 1997, 'A Rebuttal on Health', in: J. Humber and R. Almeder (eds.), What is Disease? Totowa: Human Press, pp. 3-134.
Dalgleish, A.G.: 1997, 'Why: Gene Therapy?', Gene Therapy 4, 629-630.
Fedoryka, K.: 1997, 'Health As a Normative Concept: Towards a New Conceptual Framework', The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 22, 143-160.
Fulford, K.W.M.: 1993, 'Praxis Make Perfect: Illness as a Bridge Between Biological Concepts of Disease and Social Conceptions of Health', Theoretical Medicine 14, 305-320.
Nordenfelt, L.: 1986, 'Health and Disease: Two Philosophical Perspectives', Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 40, 281-284.
Nordenfelt, L.: 1995, On the Nature of Health, 2nd edn. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Nordenfelt, L.: 1996, 'On the Notion of Health as Ability', Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy 3, 101-105.
PalÚ, G.: 1999a, 'Combined Strategies for Gene Therapy of AIDS', Gene Therapy 4, 179-180.
PalÚ, G. et al.: 1999b, 'Gene Therapy of Glioblastoma Multiforme Via Combined Expression of Suicide and Cytokine Genes: A Pilot Study in Humans', Gene Therapy 6, 330-337.
Pörn, I.: 1984, 'An Equilibrium Model of Health', in: L. Nordenfelt and I. Lindahl (eds.), Health, Disease, and Causal Explanations in Medicine. Reidel Publishing Company.
Torres, J.M.: 1995, 'The Importance of Accurate Terminology in the Field of Human Gene Transfer', Human Gene Therapy 6, 133-135.
Whitbeck, C.: 1981, 'A Theory of Health', in: A. Caplan, H.T. Engelhardt Jr. and J.J. McCartney (eds.), Concepts of Health and Disease. Massachusetts: Addison & Wesley Publishing Company.
Willamson, R.: 1993, 'From Genome Mapping to Gene Therapy', Trends in Biotechnology 11, 159-161.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Torres, J.M. The importance of genetic services for the theory of health: a basis for an integrating view of health. Med Health Care Philos 5, 43–51 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014280007453
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014280007453