East Fee Hall
965 Fee Rd, East Lansing, MI 48825
USA
This event is presented by the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences.
Professor Marleen Eijkholt, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Pain but No Gain: Pain as a Problematic and Useless Concept?
References to the human experience of “pain” are common, but those references are often ambiguous and vague. Such ambiguity creates conceptual and practical challenges, especially in the work of clinical ethics consultation. While pain is a relevant clinical problem, it is also a social construct shaped by culture, environment, and gender. These distinctions however get lost in a simple “pain” reference. With several clinical ethics scenarios, Dr. Eijkholt will ask if references to pain help us with anything, or if we should perhaps abandon pain as a “useless concept.”