JAMA & ARCHIVES
Arch Fam Med
SEARCH
GO TO ADVANCED SEARCH
HOME  PAST ISSUES  TOPIC COLLECTIONS  CME  PHYSICIAN JOBS  CONTACT US  HELP
Institution: STANFORD Univ Med Center  | My Account | E-mail Alerts | Access Rights | Sign In
  Vol. 6 No. 1, January 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  Archives
  •  Online Features
  EDITORIAL
 This Article
 •References
 •Full text PDF
 •Send to a friend
 • Save in My Folder
 •Save to citation manager
 •Permissions
 Citing Articles
 •Contact me when this article is cited
 Related Content
 •Similar articles in this journal

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Joseph C. Konen, MD, MSPH

Arch Fam Med. 1997;6(1):77-78.

Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

ALTHOUGH THE article by Volk et al1 in this issue of the ARCHIVES is based on a pilot study of only 10 men and their spouses, the general approach of this research is interesting and meritorious for application to family medicine. One future application may be to explore a fundamental health care question: "Whose life is it anyway?"

The fascinating differences the authors observed between the utilities that men, women, and couples, as well as physicians, assign to prostate cancer screening and subsequent decision options if screening reveals positive results not only suggest diversities in how individuals value different outcomes but also underscore a clinically common philosophical issue: "Whose life is it anyway?" Volk et al found, for instance, that wives would rather have their husbands live longer and experience such complications as incontinence and impotence that might result from therapy for prostate cancer than live short-ened lives . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]


Author Affiliations

Carolinas Medical Center Charlotte, NC






HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | TOPIC COLLECTIONS | CME | PHYSICIAN JOBS | HELP
CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
 
© 1997 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.