Wednesday, June 4, 2003 at 11:00 AM EDT
Better Than Well
To thine own self be true? Not any more in America says Bioethics and Philosophy Professor Carl Elliot. Increasingly over the last half century, our obsessive quest for self-fulfillment has been sought through “medical enhancement technologies.” — psychotropic drugs like Paxil, nose jobs, Botox, even voluntary amputations that make people feel complete and “better than well.” But what does our quest for the perfect self through medicine and surgery say about our society in the 21st century and why has America become ground zero for it all?
Guests:
Carl Elliot, professor of Bioethics and Philosophy at the University of Minnesota and author of “Better than Well: American Medicine meets the American Dream.”
