An intelligent and thorough philosophical analysis of the medical care morass, this does no less than clear away superficial and superfluous arguments, leaving a few essential issues and a direction for reform. Tauber, a philosopher as well as professor of medicine (Boston Univ.) briefly catalogues the well-known ills of our health care system, and provides a cohesive overview of how we arrived at this point, interwoven with experiences from his own medical practice and family life. Three basic questions emerge: how do we regard ourselves when ill, what do we expect from the physician, and as a result, how and what professional ideal do we wish to instill in health care providers to make medical practice more humane and compassionate? In a society that so prizes individual autonomy, Tauber makes it clear that we have to accept that being ill means immediately losing such self-sufficiency and self-direction, given today’s ’setting of highly technical and obscure clinical science.” If we acknowledge that the doctor-patient relationship is a fundamentally unequal one (and one with no parallel in the business world), then we can turn our attention to how best to prepare practitioners who adhere to a moral obligation to restore health (and thus autonomy). Not only should we not look to the business world for help in structuring medical care, but Tauber also takes issue with using science as the single basis for clinical care. Distinguish between scientific and caring missions, he suggests, since laboratory-based medicine addresses only what Tauber calls the “materialistic” aspects of disease (those which can be physically or chemically measured). Tauber succeeds in his effort to step back, begin again at the philosophical beginning, and cast a new light on the tangle of medical care. Involved professionals and the general readership alike will benefit.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-262-20114-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1998
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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