Theological and Ethical Problems with Medicalizing Risk
While the COVID-19 pandemic riveted public attention on questions regarding how to respond reasonably to risk of illness, everyday medical care involves more mundane forms of pharmaceutical risk management for conditions like high blood pressure, prediabetes, or high cholesterol. This essay, and the...
Authors: | ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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In: |
Christian bioethics
Year: 2023, Volume: 29, Issue: 2, Pages: 105-109 |
IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality NBE Anthropology NCH Medical ethics |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | While the COVID-19 pandemic riveted public attention on questions regarding how to respond reasonably to risk of illness, everyday medical care involves more mundane forms of pharmaceutical risk management for conditions like high blood pressure, prediabetes, or high cholesterol. This essay, and the collection it introduces, explore medicalization of risk as a theological problem, drawing on resources such as the Sermon on the Mount that caution us about the potential dangers of risk management to Christian discipleship. Medicalization of risk threatens to become an idol that promises immanent security at the cost of one’s relationship with God and others. It misleads contemporary society as to the true human end and medicine’s own capabilities to provide temporal salvation. The essays in this special issue illustrate these problems with respect to pharmaceutical risk management. |
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ISSN: | 1744-4195 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbad011 |