In the 1910s, the American Medical Association fought quackery promoted in pamphlets for drugs and treatments for everything from teething to epilepsy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(11):E1082-1093. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1082.
Today’s international health interventions—like colonial treatment campaigns—can be well-intentioned and still oppress and harm people they try to serve. Grasp of imperial medical history is critical for helping global health professionals understand the contexts in which they practice.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(7):743-753. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.7.mhst1-1607.
Violence reduction efforts should be modeled on noncontagious diseases, which have as their root cause environmental determinants, not contagious diseases.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(5):513-515. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.5.corr1-1805.
Gary Slutkin, MD, Charles Ransford, MPP, and Daria Zvetina
Violence reduction efforts should focus on interrupting transmission of violence and changing behaviors rather than mitigating environmental risk factors.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(5):516-519. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.5.corr2-1805.
Alison Bateman-House, MA, MPH and Amy Fairchild, PhD, MPH
When a Public Health Service medical officer diagnosed an immigrant with a “loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease,” that individual was considered “medically certified.”
Moral distress arises not only from organizational constraints on moral action but also from the environmental impacts of health care and climate change.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(6):617-628. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.6.mhst1-1706.
Before the late 20th century, overweight and obesity were not considered population-wide health risks, but the advent of weight loss drugs in the 1990s accelerated hypermedicalization via BMI use.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(7):E550-558. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.550.