In recent decades, American medicine has become increasingly politicized and politics has become increasingly medicalized. Behaviors previously seen as virtuous or wicked, wise or unwise are now dealt with as "healthy" or "sick"--unwanted behaviors to be controlled as if they were public health issues. The modern penchant for transforming human problems into "diseases" and judicial sanctions into "treatments," replacing the rule of law with the rule of medical discretion, leads to a type of government social critic Thomas Szasz calls "pharmacracy." This insidious political development is eroding our personal liberties while distorting our approach to both health care and politics.

 

Guest should register an account Register