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. . . What, exactly, is
shifting in this paradigm ?
Four Theatres of Perspectival
Change
Number FOUR :
THE NATURE OF
HEALTH AND HEALING
The pursuit of health and the arts of
medicine, as conventionally understood and practiced, are also evolving, encountering
challenges from at least two directions.
- "Alternative" sciences of
medicine and emerging disciplines such as ethnobotany and psychoneuroimmunology do more
than just introduce new fields of study; they expose biases, they disturb well-guarded
borders. The game has changed. Religious approaches to health and healing are
beginning to appear in the medical mainstream, but contend with the hegemony of
prevailing Western models.
- Biomedical technology raises
unprecedented ethical and meta-ethical quandaries. How we define life in relation to
quality of life, for example, or how –and who-- apportions cost and resources of
medical technology, leaves responsible discourse without resort to simplistic absolutes.
PET (Positron Emission Tomography)
imaging showing the abnormally high activation of the right part of the brain of a patient
during an epileptic seizure.
http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n01/pet/pet.htm
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