Thinking Through Breast Cancer: A Philosophical Exploration of Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survival

by Mary Ann G. Cutter

Overview

Anyone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer or knows someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer recognizes that cancer raises a host of questions concerning its nature and how we treat it. Such questions frame the difficult decisions that patients must make about their treatment and care.

Thinking Through Breast Cancer is a philosophical investigation of how breast cancer is described, explained, evaluated, and socialized in medicine. Written by a breast cancer survivor, the book interweaves personal experience with a systematic breakdown of key and highly pertinent philosophical concepts, and brings to light insights that emerge in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, social and political philosophy, and bioethics. Further, it is an investigation of the ethical implications of understanding breast cancer. Cutter seamlessly combines clinical information with philosophical analysis and makes recommendations as to how we can navigate the complex and, at times, uncertain terrain of breast cancer knowledge and care. In this way, the book is not simply a survey of what we know about breast cancer, but a personal search for guidance about navigating the complex, confusing, and frightening terrain of breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survival.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190637033
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mary Ann G. Cutter is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Georgetown University through the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Program. She is the author of numerous publications on the philosophy of disease and bioethical topics, including AIDS, genetics, death and dying, and women's health care. In 1997, Professor Cutter received a CU system-wide Service Award for her work in developing genetic protection legislation for the State of Colorado.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. How is Breast Cancer Described?
III. How is Breast Cancer Explained?
IV.How is Breast Cancer Evaluated?
V. How is Breast Cancer a Social Phenomenon?
VI. What is the Relation among the Descriptive, Explanatory, Evaluative, and Social Dimensions of Breast Cancer?
VII. What Are the Ethical Implications of How Medicine Understands Breast Cancer?
VIII. Extended Musings

Glossary of Medical Terms
Glossary of Philosophical Terms
References

Editorial Reviews

"Cutter's book is an excellent example of how philosophy can assist in the personalization of medicine, which has become impersonal and commercial in its delivery of clinical care. What makes her book so persuasive is that she exhibits full personhood both as patient and as agent. As patient, she recounts the impact not only of breast cancer but also of its treatment on her personal life... Cutter's book should be read not just by philosophers of medicine, but also by patients and health care professionals and administrators as well as policymakers." — James A. Marcum, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics

"In Thinking Through Breast Cancer, Mary Ann Cutter gives readers a systematic, wide-ranging, and well-written analysis of a disease affecting many people around the globe. The analysis is strengthened by Cutter's multiple perspectives on the condition - she is a philosopher of medicine, a bioethicist, and a woman diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Anyone with a scholarly, clinical, or personal interest in cancer will find valuable insights in this volume." —Rebecca Dresser, author of Malignant (OUP) and Daniel Noyes Kirby, Professor of Law and Professor of Ethics in Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis

From the Publisher