Doctor Quote by Yuval Noah Harari
““medicine is undergoing a tremendous conceptual revolution. Twentieth-century medicine aimed to heal the sick. Twenty-first-century medicine is increasingly aiming to upgrade the healthy. Healing the sick was an egalitarian project, because it assumed that there is a normative standard of physical and mental health that everyone can and should enjoy. If someone fell below the norm, it was the job of doctors to fix the problem and help him or her ‘be like everyone’.””
About This Quote
Source Book: Homo Deus, 2015
Medicine is shifting from fixing illness to enhancing health, redefining normalcy.
In simple terms: Medicine now aims to upgrade health.
Consider ethical implications of health enhancement.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- personal health decisions
- policy debates
- clinical trials
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- Should we pursue health upgrades for all?
- What defines a “normal” health state?
Risk of widening inequality and loss of diversity.