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Institute of Advanced Study

On Being Human in Medicine

Abstract

Once quite common, single case studies are rarely presented in major medical journals. However, individual illness journeys sometimes provide insights that are lost in purely biomedical accounts of disease and treatment.  While medical science has made considerable progress within the past century, care that is merely biomedical defeats its own ends because it cannot recognise or deal with the implications of illness and suffering for individuals. It is only our shared understanding of being human that can ensure that science is used to support human flourishing.

Insights Paper