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Disease Prevention: The Low-Tech, Low-Cost Road Less Travelled

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Ethics, Medical Research, and Medicine

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Abstract

In the several preceding chapters we have discussed how a dominant theme of much medical research is the search for new treatments. Typically, when new treatments are developed, they are high-tech and inevitably expensive, often to the extent that they are unaffordable for many people, even in First World countries. This problem is frequently compounded by a second problem: these new treatments are often put into practice without having to meet strict standards of efficacy, and, in many cases can actually result in more harm than good. A major reason for these problems is the profit motive: increasingly researchers and physicians profit financially from their relationship with commercial firms and this influences how research is carried out and how the results are interpreted and disseminated. Overall, the degree of success of modern medicine has been a good deal less than the spokespeople for medicine claim or that they routinely promise is just around the corner.

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Authors
  1. Norman J. Temple
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Andrew Thompson

  2. Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada

    Norman J. Temple

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Temple, N.J. (2001). Disease Prevention: The Low-Tech, Low-Cost Road Less Travelled. In: Thompson, A., Temple, N.J. (eds) Ethics, Medical Research, and Medicine. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0794-8_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0794-8_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7103-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0794-8

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