False Hopes Book

For most of human history, infectious diseases have claimed more lives than other classes of disease. Now chronic diseases--heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes--are most prevalent, even in the developing world. Many of these conditions result from lifestyle choices; smoking alone is thought to cause about one fourth of all deaths in the United States. So what is medical science supposed to do? Should it pick up the pieces of bodies shattered by choice, at increasing costs to society, or should it find another role? In this fascinating exploration of what medicine has become and what it could be, medical ethicist Daniel Callahan votes for the latter. He argues passionately for a "sustainable medicine," one in which society and science work together to promote public health and wellness but accept the limited ability of medicine to fix everything that can possibly go wrong. Sustainable medicine, in Callahan's view, is one in which innovation continues but is also one in which we all accept that humans will "sicken, age, whither, and die" and that science cannot keep us alive forever. Ultimately, False Hopes presents a positive message: while science can often fix what's broken, becoming truly well is something we determine through the way we live our lives.Read More