Liberation Medicine
(see also Capitalist Medicine, Health Care Delivery, Nursing, Midwifery, Health Care Reform & World Health Crises)
Basics
Practicing medicine in the desperate circumstances of 20th & 21st c. war & Third World poverty has led many practitioners to the conclusion that the victims of chronic institutionalized violence cannot be restored to genuine health without revolutionary social transformation, and that medical practice itself can play some role in that transformation. "Liberation medicine" is a recently coined phrase referring to "the conscious, conscientious use of health to promote human dignity & social justice."
On the Web: Articles
Liberation Medicine & Oppression Medicine. Dr. Khin Saw Win (4/23/01).
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Doctors for Global Health. Includes links to key writings on Liberation Medicine.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontières).
International People's Health Council.
Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights.
In the Library: Articles
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Allan, Ted & Sidney Gordon. The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune (Boston: Little, Brown, 1952).
Chen, Lincoln C.; Arthur Kleinman & Norma C. Ware (eds.) Health & Social Change in International Perspective (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 1994).
Clements, Charles. Witness to War: An American Doctor in El Salvador (NY: Bantam, 1984).
Colombotos, John & Corinne Kirchner. Physicians & Social Change (NY: Oxford, 1986).
Darvall, L.W. Medicine, Law, & Social Change: The Impact of Bioethics, Feminism & Rights Movements on Medical Decision-Making (Brookfield VT: Dartmouth, 1993).
Farmer, Paul. Infections & Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (Berkeley: U. of California, 1999).
Hannant, Larry (ed.) The Politics of Passion: Norman Bethune's Writing & Art (Toronto: U. of Toronto, 1998).
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains (NY: Random House, 2003). Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti.
Liamputtong, Pranee & Heather Gardner (eds.) Health, Social Change & Communities (NY: Oxford, 2003).
Martín-Baró, Ignacio. Writing for a Libertion Psychology (trans. A. Aron & S. Corne; Cambridge MA: Harvard U., 1994).
Metzi, Francisco. The People's Remedy: Health Care in El Salvador's War of Liberation (trans. Jean Carroll; NY: Monthly Review, 1988).
Pellegrino, Edmund & David Tomasma. The Virtues in Medical Practice (NY: Oxford, 1993).
Scrambler, Graham. Health & Social Change: A Critical Theory (Philadelphia: Open U., 2002).
Smith, Richard. Unemployment & Health: A Disaster & a Challenge (NY: Oxford, 1987).
Strada, Gino. Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary [1999] (Milan: Charta, 2004).
Stewart, Roderick. The Mind of Norman Bethune (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1977).
Totman, Richard. Social Causes of Illness (NY: Pantheon, 1979).
Wallis, Roy & Peter Morley. Marginal Medicine (NY: Free Press, 1976).
In the Library: Fiction
In the Library: For Young Readers
In the Library: Poetry
Stevens, Peter. And the Dying Sky Like Blood: A Bethune Collage in Several Voices (Ottawa: Borealis, 1974).
In the Library: Drama
Langley, Rod. Bethune: A Play (Vancouver BC: Talonbooks, 1975).
In the Library: Photography
CD & Audio
Film & Video
"The Barefoot Doctors of Rural China" [1975], dir. Diane Li, 52m.
"Health & Human Rights" [1995], by Globalvision, 27m.