Suchergebnisse

Cancer is a transnational condition involving the unprecedented flow of health information, technologies, and people across national borders. Such movement raises questions about the nature of therapeutic citizenship, how and where structurally vulnerable populations obtain care, and the political geography of blame associated with this disease. This volume brings together cutting-edge anthropological research carried out across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, representing low-, middle- and high-resource countries with a diversity of national health care systems. Contributors ethnographically map the varied nature of cancer experiences and articulate the multiplicity of meanings that survivorship, risk, charity and care entail. They explore institutional frameworks shaping local responses to cancer and underlying political forces and structural variables that frame individual experiences. Of particular concern is the need to interrogate underlying assumptions of research designs that may lead to the naturalizing of hidden agendas or intentions. Running throughout the chapters, moreover, are considerations of moral and ethical issues related to cancer treatment and research. Thematic emphases include the importance of local biologies in the framing of cancer diagnosis and treatment protocols, uncertainty and ambiguity in definitions of biosociality, shifting definitions of patienthood, and the sociality of care and support.

A contribution to the roundtable discussion on the preemptive use of force focuses on whether the US decision to wage war against the Iraqi regime is a just one rather than on the ethical implications of preemption & prevention. It is argued that Saddam Hussein's regime has given the US & its allies ample justifications for war that are based on justice, not prevention. Taken together, Saddam Hussein's willingness to attack his own civilians, his abuse of human rights, & his consistent violation of UN resolutions & the terms of the 1991 cease-fire treaty provide sufficient reasons to remove his regime as a matter of justice. The untrustworthy nature of Saddam Hussein's regime makes any peaceful road to Iraqi disarmament highly doubtful. Unlike the situation with North Korea, where there is hope of diplomatic options, the crisis in Iraq has reached its end with 'no reasonable chance of accommodation.' It is maintained that an invasion of Iraq is less likely to create a new international norm than allowing the status quo to continue. J. Lindroth

"The current scientifically informed view of suicide is that, while complex, suicide is a health-related outcome. Driven by a convergence of health factors along with other psychosocial and environmental factors, suicide risk is multi-factorial. Like most health outcomes, a set of genetic, environmental, and psychological/behavioral factors are relevant. It's critically important that health professionals develop a current understanding of suicide as older views have permeated and clouded societal understanding leading to assumptions and judgment that have silenced generations of people suffering suicidal struggles or loss of a loved one to suicide"--