The Pursuit of Perfection

“The authors shrewdly look backward at the history of medical innovation over the past century… Their prescription for society is wise” –The New York Times“Is being short a medical problem that warrants treatment? What about the diminished strength that accompanies lower testosterone levels in men as they age? … These are among the provocative questions that … a pair of eminent medical historians from Columbia University thoughtfully explore in their new book.” –The Washington Post“A thoroughly documented and readable book. ‘What science creates medicine rapidly dispenses,’ [the Rothmans] warn, and this uncritical acceptance by both physician and consumer is precisely the problem.” –Sherwin Nuland, The New York Review of Books “An important contribution to the debate about medical enhancement” —The New England Journal of Medicine

Sheila M. Rothman is Professor of Public Health at Columbia University. Her books include Living in the Shadow of Death. Her articles in the New York Review of Books and other periodicals, often cowritten with David Rothman, address human rights and medicine. She is now investigating the social and ethical implications of linking race and ethnicity to genetic disease.

David J. Rothman is Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine and History at Columbia University. His books have explored the history of prisons and mental hospitals and the impact of bioethics and law on medicine. He has recently been named president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession.

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