What Is Medicine For?

<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW115699571 BCX4"> <p><span data-contrast="none">In their 2021 book</span> <a href= "https://colsoncenter.christianbook.com/medicine-ethics-and-the-healing-profession/farr-curlin/9780268200862/pd/8200862?event=ESRCG"> <em><span data-contrast="none">The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession</span></em></a><span data-contrast="none">, Duke University professor of medical humanities Farr Curlin and philosophy professor Christopher Tollefsen argued that the Western approach to healthcare has shifted in recent decades from the pursuit of objective wellbeing to a consumer industry. In the process, doctors are increasingly seen as “service providers” whose main job is to help patients do whatever they want with their bodies. Just two years later, their analysis seems spot on. </span><span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="none">For example, the healthy functioning of a woman’s body during pregnancy is often treated and even labeled a “disease.” Same-sex couples, who have chosen inherently sterile sexual unions,</span> <a href= "https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/nyregion/nyc-ivf-same-sex-couple.html"> <span data-contrast="none">sue</span></a> <span data-contrast= "none">and then</span> <a href= "https://abcnews.go.com/US/lgbtq-couples-push-fertility-equality-family-building-benefits/story?id=100243800"> <span data-contrast="none">lobby legislatures</span></a> <span data-contrast="none">to redefine their inability to procreate as “infertility.” They act as if there’s no difference between a man and woman unable to conceive due to some medical situation and a man and a man unable to conceive due to, well, reality. </span><span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="none">This shift–from medicine as the pursuit of health to medicine as confirmation of our self-expression–is most evident in the transgender movement. In V