Me medicine vs. we medicine : reclaiming biotechnology for the common good

Summary: "Personalized healthcare -- or what the award-winning author Donna Dickenson calls 'Me Medicine' -- is radically transforming our longstanding "one-size-fits-all" model. Technologies such as direct-to-consumer genetic testing, pharmacogenetically developed therapies in cancer care, private umbilical cord blood banking, and neurocognitive enhancement claim to cater to an individual's specific biological character, and, in some cases, these technologies have shown powerful potential. Yet in others they have produced negligible or even negative results. Whatever is behind the rise of Me Medicine, it isn't just science. So why is Me Medicine rapidly edging out We Medicine, and how has our commitment to our collective health suffered as a result?"--Book jacket.

Record details

ISBN: 9780231159746 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 0231159749 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780231534413 (e-book)
ISBN: 0231534418 (e-book)
Physical Description: print
xi, 278 p. ; 24 cm.
Publisher: New York : Columbia University Press, c2013.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-261) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

A reality check for personalized medicine -- "Your genetic information should be controlled by you" : personalized genetic testing -- Pharmacogenetics : one patient, one drug? -- "Your birth day gift" : banking cord blood -- Enhancement technologies : feeling more like myself -- "The ancient, useless, dangerous, and filthy rite of vaccination" : public health, public enemy? -- Reclaiming biomedicine for the common good.