During this week, we explore the human body and moreover, how science and technology effect medicine in particular. We learn about people's effort on exploration our own body and how new technologies help us know more about ourselves. There are two things that interest me the most: the first is about the debate on the classical and modern version of Hippocratic Oath in the reading, and the second is the topic of plastic surgery.
How Technology Has Improved Medical Breakthrough
http://www.technologyblogged.com/round-ups/how-technology-has-improved-medical-breakthroughs
Nowadays with the development of technology, people are facing the unprecedented challenge on revising old moral standards. To put a simplest example, the debate about abortion. Today the abortion surgery cause less damage to body. However, many people still treat "abortion as an idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent". We can see that the Hippocratic Oath with its prohibition on performing abortions, "clearly conflicted with the new legal and ethical realities of medical practice. There are other surgeries like plastic surgery and euthanasia are also causing the direct conflict with the maxims in the Hippocratic Oath. Indeed, "a growing number of physicians have come to feel that the Hippocratic Oath is inadequate to address the realities of a medical world that has witnesses huge scientific, economic, political and social changes. From my perspective, I think the the old moral standards medically represented by Hippocratic Oath might be outdated because there are so many new forms of surgery emerging on the market. We cannot bind ourselves with our predesesors because they develop such oath based on their situation.
A Conventionalized Image of Hippocrates of Kors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates
The second interesting topic is the plastic surgery. I could not agree more when Professor Vesna said
"it should be no surprise to any of you that all of this technology, including plastic surgery came out of war." I first learned this fact when I was watching the HBO show "Broadwalk Empire". There is a character in the show loses his nose during World War I. He has to wear customized mask covering his broken nose. Today some young female would choose to do plastic surgery to improve their defects on specific body parts, causing the debate between intrinsic and artificial beauty.
Richard Harrow(played by Jack Huston) in HBO show "Broadwalk Empire"
Citations
Willke, Jack C., and Barbara Willke. Why Can't We Love Them Both: Questions and Answers about Abortion. Hayes Publishing Company, 1997.
Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/FIX-9mXd3Y4.” Lecture. Medicine pt3. Youtube, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>.
"Richard Harrow." Boardwalk Empire Wiki. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
"Hippocratic Oath & Abortion." Home. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Ogden, Jack. "How Technology Has Improved Medical Breakthroughs." Technology Blogged RSS. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
"Hippocrates." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
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