To Relieve Human Suffering: Medicine, Ethics and the Culture of Conformity

To Relieve Human Suffering:

Medicine, Ethics and the Culture of Conformity

Suzanne Holland, Ph.D.

The relief of human suffering is one of the chief goals of medicine. But what exactly is the suffering that medicine is in service of? This question becomes more poignant in the light of the availability of technologies of enhancement, gene therapies, cosmetic surgery, and regenerative medicine all have the potential to transform undesirable bodies into normal ones. Can suffering be relieved by conforming the body to standards of cultural normalcy? Is there any ethical bright line that can be drawn as technologies of enhancement become increasingly available? This lecture explores some of the issues raised by technologies of the body at the intersections of medicine, ethics, the market and popular culture.

Suzanne Holland, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Religious and Social Ethics and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She is also Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Medical History and Ethics of the University of Washington School of Medicine.