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  • Preface to the Second Edition  ix
    Introduction  1
    Part I: The Experience of Illness  
    The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine / Eric J. Cassell  7
    Lilacs in September / Katha Pollitt  21
    Diabetes / James Dickey  22
    The Cost of Appearances / Arthur Frank  26
    Betting Your Life / Alice Stewart Trillin  32
    The Want of Control: Ideas and Ideals in the Management of Diabetes / Chris Feudtner  41
    Spence + Lila / Bobbie Ann Mason  60
    Silver Water / Amy Bloom  71
    The Mother-in-Law / Doris Betts  80
    Part II: The Culture of Medicine and the Physician-Patient Relationship  
    Basic Clinical Skills: The First Encounters / Melvin Konner  89
    The Learning Curve / Atul Gawande  102
    Case Study: The Student Doctor and a Wary Patient / Marc D. Basson, Gerald Dworkin, and Eric J. Cassell  121
    A Students View of a Medical Teaching Exercise / Abenaa Brewster  127
    Primum non tacere: An Ethics of Speaking Up / James Dwyer  130
    Perspective Shift / Daniel Shapiro  143
    Facing Our Mistakes / David Hilfiker  145
    God at the Bedside / Jerome Groopman  154
    Part III: Health Care Ethics and the Clinicians Role  
    Glossary of Basic Ethical Concepts in Health Care and Research / Nancy M. P. King  161
    Ethics in Medicine: An Introduction to Moral Tools and Traditions / Larry R. Churchill, Nancy M. P. King, and David Schenck  169
    Historical and Contemporary Codes of Ethics: The Hippocratic Oath, Maimonides Prayer, the Declaration of Geneva, and the AMA Principles of Medical Ethics Case Study: Please Dont Tell! / Leonard Fleck and Marcia Angell  186
    Case Study: Please Don't Tell! / Leonard Fleck and Marcia Angell  191
    Invasions / Perri Klass  196
    The Use of Force / William Carlos Williams  201
    The Lie / Lawrence D. Grouse  205
    Informed Consent, Cancer, and Truth in Prognosis / George J. Annas  208
    Offering Truth: One Ethical Approach to the Uninformed Cancer Patient / Benjamin Freedman  216
    What the Doctor Said / Raymond Carver  228
    Part IV The End of Life  
    A Man in His Life / Yehuda Amichai  230
    End-of-Life Ethics: Some Common Definitions / Larry R. Churchill and Nancy M. P. King  232
    Informed Demand for "Non-Beneficial" Medical Treatment / Steven H. Miles  235
    The Case of Helga Wanglie: A New Kind of "Right to Die" Case / Marcia Angell  241
    Disconnecting a Ventilator at the Request of a Patient Who Knows He Will Then Die: The Doctor's Anguish / Miles J. Edwards and Susan M. Tolle  246
    The Promise / Sharon Olds  254
    Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making / Timothy E. Quill  256
    Correspondence: Death and Dignity: The Case of Diane  263
    Doctor, I Want to Die. Will You Help Me? / Timothy E. Quill  273
    The Chain of Safety / Charles R. Feldstein  286
    Try to Remember Some Details / Yehuda Amichai  288
    Index to Authors  291
    About the Editors  293
  • Eric J. Cassell

    Katha Pollitt

    James Dickey

    Alice Stewart Trillin

    Chris Feudtner

    Bobbie Ann Mason

    Amy Bloom

    Melvin Konner

    Atul Gawande

    Marc D. Basson

    Gerald Dworkin

    Abenaa Brewster

    James Dwyer

    Daniel Shapiro

    David Hilfiker

    Jerome Groopman

    Larry R. Churchill

    David Schenck

    Leonard Fleck

    Perri Klass

    William Carlos Williams

    Lawrence D. Grouse

    Benjamin Freedman

    Raymond Carver

    Yehuda Amichai

    Nancy M. P. King

    Steven H. Miles

    Marcia Angell

    Miles J. Edwards

    Susan W. Tolle

    Sharon Olds

    Timothy E. Quill

    Charles R. Feldstein

  • "These authentic stories of actual events are certain to stimulate students' awareness of the human problems of clinical practice and to prepare them for the future, with its ethical and life-threatening ambiguities. . . . The Social Medicine Reader fulfills its purposes admirably. The selected readings will stimulate critical analysis of the experiences of modern medicine from both professional and patient perspectives."—Samuel W. Bloom, JAMA

    “The academic discipline of social medicine has struggled to find a precise definition for over a century. This struggle is exemplified by the classic social medicine course book, The Social Medicine Reader, edited by faculty from the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which offers an expansive view of social medicine's concerns.”—Dorothy Porter, PLoS Med

    “Overall, this social medicine reader is clear, concise, and somewhat out of the ordinary because it is unlike other sociology readers that focus primarily on one topic or include only one type of entry (e.g., all empirical studies, all personal accounts, all politically-driven articles, etc.). This includes essays, poems, case studies, and other entries that are sure to appeal to a wide range of people. Incorporating this social medicine reader into any of the aforementioned courses should prove to be advantageous for both professors and students.”—Michelle R. Rainey, Teaching Sociology

    Reviews

  • "These authentic stories of actual events are certain to stimulate students' awareness of the human problems of clinical practice and to prepare them for the future, with its ethical and life-threatening ambiguities. . . . The Social Medicine Reader fulfills its purposes admirably. The selected readings will stimulate critical analysis of the experiences of modern medicine from both professional and patient perspectives."—Samuel W. Bloom, JAMA

    “The academic discipline of social medicine has struggled to find a precise definition for over a century. This struggle is exemplified by the classic social medicine course book, The Social Medicine Reader, edited by faculty from the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which offers an expansive view of social medicine's concerns.”—Dorothy Porter, PLoS Med

    “Overall, this social medicine reader is clear, concise, and somewhat out of the ordinary because it is unlike other sociology readers that focus primarily on one topic or include only one type of entry (e.g., all empirical studies, all personal accounts, all politically-driven articles, etc.). This includes essays, poems, case studies, and other entries that are sure to appeal to a wide range of people. Incorporating this social medicine reader into any of the aforementioned courses should prove to be advantageous for both professors and students.”—Michelle R. Rainey, Teaching Sociology

  • “Patients, Doctors, and Illness is a rich collection of classics and good new surprises.”—Kathryn Montgomery, Director of Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

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  • Description

    Duke University Press is pleased to announce the second edition of the bestselling Social Medicine Reader. The Reader provides a survey of the challenging issues facing today’s health care providers, patients, and caregivers by bringing together moving narratives of illness, commentaries by physicians, debates about complex medical cases, and conceptually and empirically based writings by scholars in medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities. The first edition of The Social Medicine Reader was a single volume. This significantly revised and expanded second edition is divided into three volumes to facilitate use by different audiences with varying interests.

    Praise for the 3-volume second edition of The Social Medicine Reader:
    “A superb collection of essays that illuminate the role of medicine in modern society. Students and general readers are not likely to find anything better.”—Arnold S. Relman, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

    Praise for the first edition:
    “This reviewer strongly recommends The Social Medicine Reader to the attention of medical educators.”—Samuel W. Bloom, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association

    Volume 1:

    A woman with what is quite probably a terminal illness must choose between courses of treatment based on contradictory diagnoses. A medical student causes acute pain in his patients as he learns to insert a central line. One doctor wonders how to react when a patient asks him to pray with her; another struggles to come to terms with his mistakes. A physician writes in a prominent medical journal about facilitating a dying woman’s wish to end her life on her own terms; letters to the editor reflect passionate responses both in support of and in opposition to his actions. These experiences and many more are vividly rendered in Patients, Doctors, and Illness, which brings together nineteen pieces that appeared in the first edition of The Social Medicine Reader and eighteen pieces new to this edition. This volume examines the roles and training of health care professionals and their relationship with patients, ethics in health care, and end-of-life experiences and decisions. It includes fiction and nonfiction narratives and poetry; definitions and case-based discussions of moral precepts in health care, such as truth telling, informed consent, privacy, and autonomy; and readings that provide legal, ethical, and practical perspectives on many familiar but persistent ethical and social questions raised by illness and care.

    Contributors: Yehuda Amichai, Marcia Angell, George J. Annas, Marc D. Basson, Doris Betts, Amy Bloom, Abenaa Brewster, Raymond Carver, Eric J. Cassell, Larry R. Churchill, James Dickey, Gerald Dworkin, James Dwyer, Miles J. Edwards, Charles R. Feldstein, Chris Feudtner, Leonard Fleck, Arthur Frank, Benjamin Freedman, Atul Gawande, Jerome Groopman, Lawrence D. Grouse, David Hilfiker, Nancy M. P. King, Perri Klass, Melvin Konner, Bobbie Ann Mason, Steven H. Miles, Sharon Olds, Katha Pollitt, Timothy E. Quill, David Schenck, Daniel Shapiro, Susan W. Tolle, Alice Stewart Trillin, William Carlos Williams

    About The Author(s)

    Nancy M. P. King, Associate Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of Making Sense of Advance Directives.

    Ronald P. Strauss is Professor of Dental Ecology and Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is author of numerous articles on social and ethical issues in the care of chronic illness.

    Larry R. Churchill is Professor of and Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Self-Interest and Universal Health Care: Why Well-Insured Americans Should Support Coverage for Everyone and Rationing Health Care in America: Perceptions and Principles of Justice.

    Sue E. Estroff is Professor of Social Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Making It Crazy: An Ethnography of Psychiatric Clients in an American Community.

    Gail E. Henderson, Associate Professor of Social Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of The Chinese Hospital: A Socialist Work Unit.

    Jonathan Oberlander is an associate professor of social medicine and an adjunct associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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