Medicine has traditionally been concerned with how diseases or abnormalities affect human functioning. Its aim is to restore the healthy state, alleviate symptoms, or prevent pathology. However, advances in medical science lead to all kinds of social and moral issues. Thanks to cultural and technological developments, medicine penetrates people's lives more deeply than ever before. During birth, illness and death, but also at more and more moments beyond. Not only are medical science and technology evolving at lightning speed, society's norms and values are also constantly changing. Health and care are themselves shaped by social mechanisms, cultural patterns and normative issues, but in turn influence them. This question is broadly about how social science and humanities research can inform the debate on good care and medicine. Within this, many questions focus on ethical dilemmas associated with medical advances. New possibilities around life extension or prenatal testing, for example, raise questions about quality of life, privacy and freedom of choice. Is everything that can be done also desirable? There are also many questions about society's perception of illness, disorders and disabilities. These include the influence of culture and society on the way people experience and interpret health problems, deal with their health and respond to healthcare interventions.
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The answers to these questions lie at the intersection of the humanities, social sciences and medical sciences. Conceptual, theoretical and normative analyses allow for a broader perspective on assumptions, classifications and judgements in the medical sciences. This requires an understanding of societal perceptions. How do we view illness and disability, and what do we consider important when it comes to cure or care? What does the organisation of healthcare tell us about this? Descriptive, historical and cross-cultural studies are important to learn from the ways these issues were and are viewed in other countries and times.
