Medicine and Society

1824 words 8 pages
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Christina Phillipps

28 September, 2010

Medicine’s Impact: Is there more than meets the scalpel?

Today’s medicine is vastly different than it has ever been in our history and society. We are able to fix, cure and repair almost anything we want in the human body. When the average person thinks of how medicine has affected the American culture, many things- mostly good ones come to mind. However, in the past 100 years it has had a lot of negative impact as well. It is important to look at both the positive and the negative effects medicine and the health industry represent. Because of the medical privileges Americans have access to, there tends to be some taking advantage of what is truly necessary and what is not. It should …show more content…

Recently technology has come up with highly advanced contraceptives and emergency contraceptives that allow abortion and pregnancy to be prevented, as well as STI’s with the use of condoms. Levonorgestrel (Plan B) was approved as an over-the-counter medication for emergency contraception in 2006 opening up many new opportunities. Several studies have shown that emergency contraception does not increase promiscuity nor decrease condom use, but these erroneous beliefs are still widely held. The emergency contraceptive “Plan B” releases a hormone called progesterone that prevents the fertilized egg from ever planting itself in the fetus allowing it to slide out. Plan B also has no harmful effects to the baby or woman if the woman is already pregnant.

The last way medicine has impacted our society is by the over use of prescription and over the counter drugs. In America, we have access to a pill for basically everything we could ask for. This has led to a massive dependency on drugs and is even affecting our children of all ages. There is no technical definition for prescription drug abuse, however according to Benny Monheit. Australian Family Physician it is described as: “recognizing and dealing with patients who seek drugs for nonmedical purposes. This includes 'prescription shoppers' and patients who demand inappropriate types and quantities of drugs from their own doctor for illicit purposes such as selling or injecting them, and recognizing and dealing

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