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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Sick With Fear: Popular Challenges To Scientific Authority In The Vaccine Controversies Of The 21st Century, Ellen Watkins
Sick With Fear: Popular Challenges To Scientific Authority In The Vaccine Controversies Of The 21st Century, Ellen Watkins
Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society
In the 20th century, vaccines were heralded as one of the greatest medical inventions in history. In the late 1990’s, however, the myth of vaccine-caused autism caught fire. Despite mountains of evidence disproving the link, panicking Americans eschewed vaccines and turned against their physicians. Why did Americans turn their backs on doctors, scientists, and the health industry? This paper follows the vaccine controversy of the last thirty years, looking in particular at the relationship between science and the media. This paper analyzes the contrast between discussion of the hypothesized link in scientific circles and in popular news sources, seeking to …
Sorry Buddy, But Your Name Isn't On The List: Fear And The Ethics Of Organ Donation In Film, Ted Callis
Sorry Buddy, But Your Name Isn't On The List: Fear And The Ethics Of Organ Donation In Film, Ted Callis
Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society
The fear of death and illness is a powerful motivator. When taking into account the ethical reasoning that drives organ transplantation and procurement practices, it is persuasive enough to sway minds and corrupt pure reason. And so this paper will uncover how fear of illness and death shape answers to the ethical questions that arise in transplant debates and how these debates are in turn raised in the ethical dilemmas portrayed by popular American films. This paper will examine recent films such as The Island, and Never Let Me Go to illustrate how the ethical dilemmas associated with organ …
Busting A Gut: Portrayals Of Obesity In Popular Culture, Carly Babel
Busting A Gut: Portrayals Of Obesity In Popular Culture, Carly Babel
Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society
Obesity is America’s number one leading health epidemic, affecting more than 93 million Americans today (OAC). From 1985 to 2010, obesity has gone from affecting an average of 10% of individuals in just about every state to today affecting 33.8% of people within each state. Children and adults alike all over the U.S. are being diagnosed with obesity and encouraged to change their lifestyles. Doctors are prescribing patients to lose weight, exercise, eat healthy, and in extreme cases, go under the knife, but none of these recommendations are making a dent in lowering the rate of obesity. Rather, the number …