Reflections on "Health" from the Perspective of Immunology / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

The philosophical debate on "health" was examined based on three situations in immunology the role of the immune system in cancer, maternal infant inheritance, and xenotransplantation. The concepts of "health" depicted by naturalism, dispositionalism inherited from naturalism, and constructivism are difficult to be well applied in the above three situations. Examining whether there is something "go wrong" in the organism on physiological and natural levels, and whether the occurrence of "wrong-goings" can bring "good" results, and then giving value judgments based on them, is a better approach to characterize "health". Conducting value judgments means arousing the imagination and expectation there is a tension between the expectation that "health can be restored" through medical intervention and the inevitable uncertainty of actual medical knowledge. If expectation failed, patients’ well-being would be undermined. Therefore, in the clinical application and research of cutting-edge methods such as immunotherapy, it is still required to be cautious about statements such as "restoring health" that may bring excessive expectations to patients.