Surgery Archives

Social Justice

Is the Quest to Build a Kinder, Gentler Surgeon Misguided?

Surgery is a fundamentally messy and stressful activity. When being a few millimeters off target can be life-changing, a surgeon needs to possess fierce concentration, unrelenting perfectionism, and, above all, staunch self-assurance.

Wen Shen

Social Justice

When a University Hospital Backs a Surgical Robot, Controversy Ensues

The former head of a prestigious Boston hospital found it unsettling that the surgical staff of an Illinois university medical center endorsed the medical device in an ad in the New York Times magazine. After he started asking questions, the hospital asked that the ad be suspended.

Charles Ornstein

Social Justice

Do You Have to Pee Standing Up to Be a Real Man?

This simple idea, encouraged by medical texts of the past that taught deviation from the norm would lead to confused sexuality and gender identity issues, has put a surprising number of babies under the knife.

Alice Dreger

Environment

The Silly Science of Near-Death Experiences

There's no way to prove whether or not someone's had an out of body experience, but that hasn't stopped scientists from trying to study the phenomenon.

Katie Heaney