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Bioethics and Social Studies of Medicine: Overlapping Concerns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2009

LEIGH TURNER
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Extract

Polemicists and disciplinary puritans commonly make a sharp distinction between the normative, “prescriptive,” philosophical work of bioethicists and the empirical, “descriptive” work of anthropologists and sociologists studying medicine, healthcare, and illness. Though few contemporary medical anthropologists and sociologists of health and illness subscribe to positivism, the legacy of positivist thought persists in some areas of the social sciences. It is still quite common for social scientists to insist that their work does not contain explicit normative analysis, offers no practical recommendations for social reform or policy making, and simply interprets social worlds.

Type
Special Section: Open Forum
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 36 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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