1 research outputs found

    Molecular medicine and concepts of disease: the ethical value of a conceptual analysis of emerging biomedical technologies

    Get PDF
    Although it is now generally acknowledged that new biomedical technologies often produce new definitions and sometimes even new concepts of disease, this observation is rarely used in research that anticipates potential ethical issues in emerging technologies. This article argues that it is useful to start with an analysis of implied concepts of disease when anticipating ethical issues of biomedical technologies. It shows, moreover, that it is possible to do so at an early stage, i.e. when a technology is only just emerging. The specific case analysed here is that of ā€˜molecular medicineā€™. This group of emerging technologies combines a ā€˜cascade modelā€™ of disease processes with a ā€˜personal patternā€™ model of bodily functioning. Whereas the ethical implications of the first are partly familiar from earlierā€”albeit controversialā€”forms of preventive and predictive medicine, those of the second are quite novel and potentially far-reaching
    corecore