The Ethics of Reductionism in the Medical Sciences

While Marcum’s philosophy focuses on medical research at the molecular, genetic, and tissue levels, Elisabeth Lloyd emphasizes the socioeconomic factors of health. She presents an empirical trend that permeates through a number of cross-national studies: the degree of income inequality in any given society is strongly correlated with the society’s level of morbidity and mortality. This means that if a society’s income gradient is steep (the poor are severely more poor than the rich), the worse off everyone is – rich and poor. This phenomenon can be seen in a wide range of diseases, including allergies, asthma, accelerated aging, cancer, epilepsy, Grave’s disease, multiple sclerosis, myocardial infarction, PTSD, rheumatoid arthritis, just†¦show more content†¦Both parties must take into account the expected quality of life, other medical problems, support structures, etc. Tauber argues that the application of medical sciences is not objectiv e, as any medical practitioner engages in the social domain of the sufferer and family just as much as he must engage in the genetic and biophysical domains of the body. Therefore, medicine, by its very nature, is holistic. It seeks to address all aspects of the patient, including illness, history, personal values, social influences, psychological state, etc. And, in medicine, reductionism should be viewed as a tool that may be applied to certain aspects as necessary to care for the patient. We have reviewed the causal effects on human health at genetic, tissue, organismal, and ecological levels. It appears that the line becomes blurred between reductionism and holism when these levels of organization are presented next to one another (for example, the organic holism of tissue structure demonstrated in Marcum’s discussion may be considered reductionism when presented relative to the human as a whole). Consequentially, the various aspects of human health form a continuous, relative, stack of holism on top of reductionist on top of holism on top of reductionism, etc. We can more accurately classify these various causal effects as hierarchical levels of explanation, rather than strictly â€Å"reductionist†Show MoreRelatedGenetic Enhancement and Politics Essays1801 Words   |  8 PagesGenetic Enhancement and Politics      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since the beginning of organized government there has always been a clash between science and politics. 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