SOCI 130, Long Essay Questions, Spring 2008

Midterm Exam #1

1. How is race related to health in the United States?

2. Dr. Vosk has said that in medical school he was taught that emergency medicine was entirely biological but what he’s learned as a practitioner is that emergency medicine is entirely sociological. What does he mean and why is that true?

3. Among the central concepts in the sociology of medicine have been the ideas of "moral community" and "trust" since during the first three quarters of the Twentieth Century they were basic to our ideas of how health care was organized. How has their status as organizing principles changed in the institution of medicine? What consequences follow?

4. What might it mean to say that “handicapped” is a political status?

5. How does the New Right political perspective relate to the corporatization of American medicine?