The Pursuit of Perfection
  • Published: 15 December 2004
  • ISBN: 9780679758358
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $29.99

The Pursuit of Perfection

The Promise and Perils of Medical Enchancement

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What does it mean to live in a time when medical science can not only cure the human body but also reshape it? How should we as individuals and as a society respond to new drugs and genetic technologies? Sheila and David Rothman address these troubling questions with a singular blend of history and analysis, taking us behind the scenes to explain how scientific research, medical practice, drug company policies, and a quest for peak performance combine to exaggerate potential benefits and minimize risks. The Rothmans bring an authoritative clarity to a subject often obscured by rumor, commerce and inadequate reporting, revealing just what happens when physicians view patients’ unhappiness and dissatisfaction with their bodies–short stature, thunder thighs, aging–as though they were diseases to be treated.
  • Published: 15 December 2004
  • ISBN: 9780679758358
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $29.99
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About the authors

Sheila Rothman

David J. Rothman is Bernard Schoenberg Professor of
Social Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of
Society and Medicine at the Columbia College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and Professor of History at
Columbia University. He is the author of 5 books on
medical history and medical ethics, including The
Discovery of the Asylum, co-winner of the Albert J.
Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association. A
leader in the field of medical ethics, he writes frequently for
the New York Review of Books.
Sheila M. Rothman is Professor of Public Health in the
Division ofSociomedical Sciences at Columbia's Mailman
School of Public Health. She is also the Deputy Director of
the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine at the
Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Her books
include, most recently, Living in the Shadow of Death:
Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in
American History (1994) and she chairs the Task Force on
Genetics and Public Health at the Mailman School of Public
Health.