Unit 1 Journal
Medical Sociology
Frank DeMers
Consider how biomedicine, given its dominance in the Western world, affects your fictional character. For example, does biomedicine affect how you experience your body, does it impact how you interpret ‘pain’, does it affect how you address an ailment, is your ‘social body’ affected by the medical knowledge produced, and so forth…
My character is affected by biomedicine in a number of ways. He is a generally healthy twenty-year-old male from a middle-class background. He had very few individual health challenges during his youth. His parents took him for regular doctor’s visits, he received all of his vaccinations, he was treated for a few minor injuries that he received while playing youth soccer and his nutrition was typical for his family status. His current health status is largely influenced by his past, overall, he has few risk factors for chronic illness.
Some recent challenges he has experienced include. He was previously covered by his father’s business for health insurance. His father had to drop his son’s coverage due to his wife’s health issue. Sam’s (character) mother has leukemia, she was in remission for two years but it has come back.
Sam has taken a part time job, is still trying to take classes and is living on his own with a couple of friends. He has health coverage through the ACA. He has to consider the limits of this coverage though and how it may impact his health.
Sam is experiencing high levels of stress. He is worried about his mother’s cancer. He is working part time, but his earnings barely cover his expenses. He has tried to earn extra income through driving for Lyft, but that has been impacted by the current Covid – 19 pandemic. He doesn’t always eat well; he is having difficulty sleeping and he has experienced some minor depression.
Sam has generally felt that medicine is beneficial. He has however seen some of the difficulties that his mother experienced. The availability of effective treatment and the high cost have caused strain for his family. His mother’s cancer treatments had caused her to lose her hair, had made her immune compromised and had left her generally weak and lethargic. Although Sam and his family want to see the best outcome for his mother, they have also seen the negative side effects of the treatments.
From the characters viewpoint, I find that biomedicine has some downsides. Yes, there are medical solutions to the problems but there are also several negative impacts. The effectiveness of cancer treatments is at times questionable. Availability and cost of treatments are often important considerations for cancer patients. In many areas cancer treatment facilities are regional. Patients may have to travel to another city or stay over for extended times to receive treatment. This adds additional cost to already expensive procedures. In many cases health insurance programs do not cover certain treatments or only cover part of the cost. This can impose additional financial burdens on the patients.
Our society also tends to place some blame upon the victims for certain forms of cancer. Although this might be legitimate for someone who has been a pack a day smoker and has contracted lung cancer. We should also consider that social impacts also contribute to cancer risks. Did the promotion of smoking as “cool” or the acceptance of known addictive and dangerous products and the marketing of tobacco contribute to the smoker’s habit.
The pain experienced by people receiving cancer treatments can be both physical and emotional. Treatments often cause serious side effects and the long -term outcomes are often not guaranteed. Hair loss, weight loss and nausea are common side effects. Anxiety, depression and stress are some of the mental health concerns as well. Society also accepts that we place limits on the availability, effectiveness and costs of certain medical treatments. I think we need to consider why we allow the cost of medicine in the United States to be so much higher than in most other countries.
Our reliance upon the biomedical model of medicine also limits the exploration of alternative medicine. Some nutritional components, the use of supplements, herbal medicines and other non-traditional treatments have showed promising results when used in conjunction with biomedical treatment models.
