The Shifting Borders of Medicalization: Perspectives and Dilemmas of Human Enhancement

2009 ◽  
pp. 13-30
Author(s):  
Antonio Maturo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Normal Individual ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Medical Gaze ◽  
Health Care Practices ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Biomedical Interventions

- While medicalization is the process of extending the medical gaze on human conditions through the mechanism of pathologization, human enhancement actions are implemented towards normal conditions. In this sense, human enhancement can not be considered either health care or health promotion because its aim is optimization, not healing nor prevention. As the borders between normality and pathology are blurred, biomedical interventions aiming at improving a normal individual today could be conceived as health care practices directed towards a sick person tomorrow. Therefore, human enhancement actions should be analyzed through the lenses of the medicalization-theory proposed by Conrad - but on a long-term scale. Under an ethical perspective, human enhancement interventions - being very heterogeneous - should be analyzed case-by-case.Keywords: medicalization, human enhancement, medicine, normality, health promotion, disease.Parole chiave: medicalizzazione, miglioramento umano, medicina, normalitÀ, promozione della salute, malattia.

I mutevoli confini della medicalizzazione: prospettive e dilemmi del miglioramento umano

2009 ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Antonio Maturo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Normal Individual ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Medical Gaze ◽  
Health Care Practices ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Biomedical Interventions

- While medicalization is the process of extending the medical gaze on human conditions through the mechanism of pathologization, human enhancement actions are implemented towards normal conditions. In this sense, human enhancement can not be considered either health care or health promotion because its aim is optimization, not healing nor prevention. As the borders between normality and pathology are blurred, biomedical interventions aiming at improving a normal individual today could be conceived as health care practices directed towards a sick person tomorrow. Therefore, human enhancement actions should be analyzed through the lenses of the medicalization-theory proposed by Conrad - but on a long-term scale. Under an ethical perspective, human enhancement interventions - being very heterogeneous - should be analyzed case-by-case.Keywords: medicalization, human enhancement, medicine, normality, health promotion, disease.Parole chiave: medicalizzazione, miglioramento umano, medicina, normalitÀ, promozione della salute, malattia.

scholarly journals Health care practices influencing health promotion in urban black women in Tshwane

Curationis ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
SCD Wright
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
African Women ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Quality Health Care ◽  
Health Care Practices ◽  
Care Practices

Health promotion is a multifaceted activity. Women and children are particularly vulnerable regarding access to quality health care, with young African women reportedly the poorest and most economically marginalised and least educated sector in South Africa. Understanding the context within which a person lives is an essential component in the health educator’s teaching strategy. Understanding urban black women’s health care practices will enable health promoters to develop interventions that are successful. The problem investigated was to gain an understanding of the health care practices of urban black women that could influence health promotion activities. The design was qualitative exploratory. The respondents were women living in an urban township in Tshwane, South Africa. The sampling method was convenient and purposive and the sample size was determined by saturation of the data. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews using six specific themes and the analysed using open coding. The results indicated that the social environment created by the registered nurses in the primary health influenced the health care practices of the women negatively. Practices regarding the seriousness of a health problem suggest a possible reason for late admission of a person with a serious health problem.

The call to Hawaii: Holistic practitioners’ perspectives of their communicative practices of healing

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Geist-Martin ◽  
Catherine Becker ◽  
Summer Carnett ◽  
Katherine Slauta
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Holistic Health ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Health Care Practices ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Holistic Health Care ◽  
Mutual Action

The big island of Hawaii has been named the healing island – a place with varied interpretations of healing, health, and a wide range of holistic health care practices. This research explores the perspectives of holistic providers about the communicative practices they believe are central to their interactions with patients. Intensive ethnographic interviews with 20 individuals revealed that they perceive their communication with clients as centered on four practices, specifically: (a) reciprocity – a mutual action or exchange in which both the practitioner and patient are equal partners in the healing process; (b) responsibility – the idea that, ultimately, people must heal themselves; (c) forgiveness – the notion that healing cannot progress if a person holds the burden of anger and pain; and (d) balance – the idea that it is possible to bring like and unlike things together in unity and harmony. The narratives revealed providers’ ontological assumptions about mind-body systems and the rationalities they seek to resist in their conversations with patients.

Strengthening of occupational health promotion by the German Prevention Health Care Act

2019 ◽  
pp. 188-190
Author(s):  
Diana Hart
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Occupational Health Promotion ◽  
And Control

All countries are faced with the problem of the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCD): implement prevention strategies eff ectively, keep up the momentum with long term benefi ts at the individual and the population level, at the same time tackling hea lth inequalities. Th e aff ordability of therapy and care including innovative therapies is going to be one of the key public health priorities in the years to come. Germany has taken in the prevention and control of NCDs. Germany’s health system has a long history of guaranteeing access to high-quality treatment through universal health care coverage. Th r ough their membership people are entitled to prevention and care services maintaining and restoring their health as well as long term follow-up. Like in many other countries general life expectancy has been increasing steadily in Germany. Currently, the average life expectancy is 83 and 79 years in women and men, respectively. Th e other side of the coin is that population aging is strongly associated with a growing burden of disease from NCDs. Already over 70 percent of all deaths in Germany are caused by four disease entities: cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes. Th ese diseases all share four common risk factors: smoking, alcohol abuse, lack of physical activity and overweight. At the same time, more and more people become long term survivors of disease due to improved therapy and care. Th e German Government and public health decision makers are aware of the need for action and have responded by initiating and implementing a wide spectrum of activities. One instrument by strengthening primary prevention is the Prevention Health Care Act. Its overarching aim is to prevent NCDs before they can manifest themselves by strengthening primary prevention and health promotion in diff erent sett ings. One of the main emphasis of the Prevention Health Care Act is the occupational health promotion at the workplace.

Impact of Religion on Traditional Health Care Practices Among the Lepchas of Upper and Lower Lingthem of Upper Dzongu, Sikkim, India

2021 ◽  
pp. 2455328X2199571
Author(s):  
Manisha Thapa ◽  
Pinak Tarafdar
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Traditional Health ◽  
Health Care Practices ◽  
Modern Health Care ◽  
Concept Of Health ◽  
Traditional Health Care ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
The Village

In all cultures and regions, the concept of health varies, based on the type of environment and prevalent sociocultural traditions. The present study is conducted among the Lepchas of the village of Lingthem divided into two sectors—Upper and Lower Lingthem, Upper Dzongu, North Sikkim. This population comprising Buddhist Lepchas residing away from the mainstream through poor infrastructural facilities still maintain ethnomedical health care practices without influence of major Indian healing systems. Living in the area of Dzongu exclusively inhabited by Lepchas revival of ancient cultural practices is evident among Lepchas of Lingthem. The structure of religious beliefs prevalent among the Lepchas, including traditional animistic as well as Buddhist practices, greatly influence forms of treatment sought for specific ailments. Even today, the use and maintenance of traditional health care with syncretized Buddhist religious belief among residents of Lingthem act as a vital source for understanding the influence of religion on traditional health care practices. Despite the presence of a few modern health care agencies, the traditional treatment of Bongthing (Lepcha shaman) and Buddhist monks remain widely popular as primary means of health care.

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