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lectures > lectures autumn 2000

The rise and fall of modern medicine

Speaker: Dr. James LeFanu
11th November 2000

The achievements of medicine since World War II rank as one of the most sustained triumphs of human endeavour since the Renaissance. So dramatic and profound has been the assault on disease that it is now difficult to imagine the world of half a century ago when there were no drugs for most killer diseases. These achievements have had a profoundly beneficial effect on people's lives, as well as being a liberating force, freeing them from the fear of illness or untimely death, permitting most of them for the first time in human history to live out their natural life spans and significantly emeliorating the chronic disabilities associated with ageing. Dr. LeFanu, however, argues that, while the scope of modern medicine is immeasurably greater than it was, the optimism generated by its advances seems to have evaporated. In short, medicine is doing better, but feeling worse.

Dr. James LeFanu is a general practitioner and medical columnist of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. Among his many previous books is Home Remedies (Robinson, 1997), a Sunday Times top-ten best-seller. The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine was published by Abacus earlier this year.

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