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"For a reader interested in the contemporary history of medicine, we can recommend no book more highly than The Courage to Fail.It is beautifully and clearly written; it is fascinating in its treatment of the history of one of the most publicized of the new medical technologies-organ transplant and renal dialysis." -Journal of History and Medicine "This book is a 'must' for every young physician and surgeon who is involved with the trial of the new procedures in the environment of the modern teaching hospital."-New England Journal of Medicine The title of this profound work conveys the bold, uncertain, and often dangerous adventure in which medical professionals and their organ transplant an...
Observing Bioethics examines the history of bioethics as a discipline related not only to modern biology, medicine, and biotechnology, but also to the core values and beliefs of American society and its courts, legislatures, and media. The book is written from the perspective of two social scientists--a sociologist of medicine(Renee C. Fox) and a historian of medicine (Judith P. Swazey)--who have participated in bioethics since the emergence of this multidisciplinary field more than 30 years ago. Fox and Swazey draw on first-hand observations and experiences in a variety of American bioethical settings; face-to-face interviews with first- and second-generation figures in the genesis and earl...
This groundbreaking book explains prognosis from the perspective of doctors, examining why physicians are reluctant to predict the future, how doctors use prognosis, the symbolism it contains, and the emotional difficulties it involves. Drawing on his experiences as a doctor and sociologist, Nicholas Christakis interviewed scores of physicians and searched dozens of medical textbooks and medical school curricula for discussions of prognosis in an attempt to get to the core of this nebulous medical issue that, despite its importance, is only partially understood and rarely discussed. "Highly recommended for everyone from patients wrestling with their personal prognosis to any medical practiti...
Experiment Perilous covers a three-year period in the lives of the patients and physicians in a small and intense hospital community. It represents a pioneering, participant-observation-based study of a hospital ward as a social system. In a new epilogue, Fox provides a historical and sociological account of phenomena relevant to clinical investigations that she has observed in her forty-five years as a sociologist of medicine.
Historically, the doctor-patient relationship has been based on a one-way trust--despite recent judicial attempts to give patients a greater voice. Seeing a growing need for more honest and complete communication between physician and patient, Dr. Jay Katz advocates a new, informed dialogue that respects the rights and needs of both sides. A new Preface outlines changes since the book's publication in 1984.
In the Field, by Renee C. Fox, is a narrative account of the author's life as a sociologist. It is not a memoir in the conventional sense; rather, it is an ethnographic autobiography. Drawing on a vast reservoir of notes and documents that chronicle the span of her career, this work also focuses on the places Fox's field research has carried her.Propelled by a conviction to move beyond the boundaries of herself and of her native land, Fox has done first-hand research in Europe, Central Africa, and China, as well as in the United States. The majority of her research has centered on health, illness, and medicine. Other recurrent themes that pervade her work include training for uncertainty; the allocation of scarce resources; the relationship between self and others; detachment and concern; the particular and the universal; the harm that can result from intended good; and the questions posed by illness and accident, pain and suffering, and death.It is Fox's commitment as a teacher and mentor of generations of students that lies at the heart of this book. This volume will inspire new generations of social researchers.
An intimate portrait of the renowned international humanitarian organization. Winner of the PROSE Award for Excellence, Sociology and Social Work of the Association of American Publishers This study of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) casts new light on the organization’s founding principles, distinctive culture, and inner struggles to realize more fully its “without borders” transnational vision. Pioneering medical sociologist Renée C. Fox spent nearly twenty years conducting extensive ethnographic research within MSF, a private international medical humanitarian organization that was created in 1971 and awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1999. With unprec...
This outstanding collection of essays by Renee C. Fox encompasses almost thirty years of original, pioneering research in the sociology of medicine. Based on fieldwork in a variety of medical settings in the United States, Belgium, and Zaire, these ethnographic essays examine chronic and terminal illness, medical research, therapeutic innovation, medical education and socialization, and bio-ethics. Within this framework, three empirical "cases" have been singled out for special scrutiny--the process of becoming a physician, the development of the artificial kidney machine and organ transplantation, and the evolution of medical research in Belgium. Without ignoring social structural or psycho...
Experiment Perilous covers a three-year period in the lives of the patients and physicians in a small and intense hospital community. It represents a pioneering, participant-observation-based study of a hospital ward as a social system. In a new epilogue, Fox provides a historical and sociological account of phenomena relevant to clinical investigations that she has observed in her forty-five years as a sociologist of medicine.
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