Tensions and opportunities in convergence: Shifting concepts of disease in emerging molecular medicine [Book Review]
NanoEthics 3 (3):243-255 (2009)
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Abstract |
The convergence of biomedical sciences with nanotechnology as well as ICT has created a new wave of biomedical technologies, resulting in visions of a ‘molecular medicine’. Since novel technologies tend to shift concepts of disease and health, this paper investigates how the emerging field of molecular medicine may shift the meaning of ‘disease’ as well as the boundary between health and disease. It gives a brief overview of the development towards and the often very speculative visions of molecular medicine. Subsequently three views of disease often used in the philosophy of medicine are briefly discussed: the ontological or neo-ontological, the physiological and the normative/holistic concepts of disease. Against this background two tendencies in the field of molecular medicine are highlighted: (1) the use of a cascade model of disease and (2) the notion of disease as a deviation from an individual pattern of functioning. It becomes clear that molecular medicine pulls conceptualizations of disease and health in several, partly opposed directions. However, the resulting tensions may also offer opportunities to steer the future of medicine in more desirable directions.
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Keywords | Molecular medicine Nanomedicine Concept of disease Concept of health Technology Reductionism Personalized medicine |
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DOI | 10.1007/s11569-009-0078-7 |
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References found in this work BETA
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A Rebuttal on Health.Christopher Boorse - 1997 - In James M. Humber & Robert F. Almeder (eds.), What is Disease? Humana Press. pp. 1--134.
The Concepts of Health and Illness Revisited.Lennart Nordenfelt - 2006 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (1):5-10.
An Agenda for Future Debate on Concepts of Health and Disease.George Khushf - 2007 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 10 (1):19-27.
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Citations of this work BETA
The New Holism: P4 Systems Medicine and the Medicalization of Health and Life Itself.Henrik Vogt, Bjørn Hofmann & Linn Getz - 2016 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 19 (2):307-323.
Towards Precision Medicine; a New Biomedical Cosmology.M. W. Vegter - 2018 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 21 (4):443-456.
Metaphors in Nanomedicine: The Case of Targeted Drug Delivery.Bernadette Bensaude Vincent & Sacha Loeve - 2014 - NanoEthics 8 (1):1-17.
Framing the Discussion: Nanotechnology and the Social Construction of Technology--What STS Scholars Are Saying.Stephen H. Cutcliffe, Christine M. Pense & Michael Zvalaren - 2012 - NanoEthics 6 (2):81-99.
Explorative Nanophilosophy as Tecnoscienza: An Italian Perspective on the Role of Speculation in Nanoindustry.Steven Umbrello - 2019 - TECNOSCIENZA: Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies 10 (1):71-88.
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