The point is not to prove that dying people can be useful but to reject the spurious concept that people need to be useful in order to be valued. All too frequently, people are given the sense that they are valued only for their utilitarian contribution and are expendable if they lose their economic worth. We are social beings, and science, like all disciplines, has its ideological and political dimensions. As Hans Selye pointed out, the unacknowledged assumptions of the scientist will often limit and define what will be discovered. Settling for the view that illnesses, mental or physical, are primarily genetic allows us to avoid disturbing questions about the nature of the society in which we live. If “science” enables us to ignore poverty or man-made toxins or a frenetic and stressful social culture as contributors to disease, we can look only to simple answers: pharmacological and biological. Such an approach helps to justify and preserve prevailing social values and structures. ” —Dr Gabor Mate
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 03:43:59 +0000
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