A collection of readings - geared for medical students and students of public health - that deal with social and cultural issues in medicine

Nancy M. P. King, Associate Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of Making Sense of Advance Directives.

Ronald P. Strauss is Professor of Dental Ecology and Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is author of numerous articles on social and ethical issues in the care of chronic illness.

Larry R. Churchill is Professor of and Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Self-Interest and Universal Health Care: Why Well-Insured Americans Should Support Coverage for Everyone and Rationing Health Care in America: Perceptions and Principles of Justice.

Sue E. Estroff is Professor of Social Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Making It Crazy: An Ethnography of Psychiatric Clients in an American Community.

Gail E. Henderson, Associate Professor of Social Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of The Chinese Hospital: A Socialist Work Unit.

Jonathan Oberlander is an associate professor of social medicine and an adjunct associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Index to Authors 291
About the Editors 293
Preface to the Second Edition ix
Introduction 1
Part I: The Experience of Illness
The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine / Eric J. Cassell 7
Lilacs in September / Katha Pollitt 21
Diabetes / James Dickey 22
The Cost of Appearances / Arthur Frank 26
Betting Your Life / Alice Stewart Trillin 32
The Want of Control: Ideas and Ideals in the Management of Diabetes / Chris Feudtner 41
Spence + Lila / Bobbie Ann Mason 60
Silver Water / Amy Bloom 71
The Mother-in-Law / Doris Betts 80
Part II: The Culture of Medicine and the Physician-Patient Relationship
Basic Clinical Skills: The First Encounters / Melvin Konner 89
The Learning Curve / Atul Gawande 102
Case Study: The “Student Doctor and a Wary Patient / Marc D. Basson, Gerald Dworkin, and Eric J. Cassell 121
A Students’ View of a Medical Teaching Exercise / Abenaa Brewster 127
Primum non tacere: An Ethics of Speaking Up / James Dwyer 130
Perspective Shift / Daniel Shapiro 143
Facing Our Mistakes / David Hilfiker 145
God at the Bedside / Jerome Groopman 154
Part III: Health Care Ethics and the Clinician’s Role
Glossary of Basic Ethical Concepts in Health Care and Research / Nancy M. P. King 161
Ethics in Medicine: An Introduction to Moral Tools and Traditions / Larry R. Churchill, Nancy M. P. King, and David Schenck 169
Historical and Contemporary Codes of Ethics: The Hippocratic Oath, Maimonides’ Prayer, the Declaration of Geneva, and the AMA Principles of Medical Ethics
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Case Study: Please Don't Tell! / Leonard Fleck and Marcia Angell 191
Invasions / Perri Klass 196
The Use of Force / William Carlos Williams 201
The Lie / Lawrence D. Grouse 205
Informed Consent, Cancer, and Truth in Prognosis / George J. Annas 208
Offering Truth: One Ethical Approach to the Uninformed Cancer Patient / Benjamin Freedman 216
What the Doctor Said / Raymond Carver 228
Part IV The End of Life
A Man in His Life / Yehuda Amichai 230
End-of-Life Ethics: Some Common Definitions / Larry R. Churchill and Nancy M. P. King 232
Informed Demand for "Non-Beneficial" Medical Treatment / Steven H. Miles 235
The Case of Helga Wanglie: A New Kind of "Right to Die" Case / Marcia Angell 241
Disconnecting a Ventilator at the Request of a Patient Who Knows He Will Then Die: The Doctor's Anguish / Miles J. Edwards and Susan M. Tolle 246
The Promise / Sharon Olds 254
Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making / Timothy E. Quill 256
Correspondence: Death and Dignity: The Case of Diane 263
Doctor, I Want to Die. Will You Help Me? / Timothy E. Quill 273
The Chain of Safety / Charles R. Feldstein 286
Try to Remember Some Details / Yehuda Amichai 288