Health, Disease and Value

Health has acquired a quasi-moral value in contemporary society from the iconic value of the National Health Service in political discourse, to the responsibility for illness imputed to sufferers from certain complaints such as ME or cancer. Health, Disease and Value reconsiders the cultural, political and theoretical contexts, which surround our understanding and evaluation of health and illness. Public perceptions, legal positions and political attitudes towards medicine and illness are re-explored and a series of controversial issues raised:

* Is disease necessarily a bad thing?
* Should we always try to eliminate it?
* What happens if we interpret the value of disease on a collective, political level rather than a personal one

How we should interpret disease and the ethics of health and illness are thus radically questioned. This exciting new book will be of particular interest to those studying the social and cultural aspects of health and illness and to health professionals seeking to farther their understanding of the 'psychsocial' dimensions of their field.