What is Medicine For? | Devan Stahl, PhD

In recent years, Silicon Valley has imagined for us a new way of life – one where almost anyone can be a twenty or thirty-something-year-old with a supernatural glow, toned physique, understated intelligence, and a superabundance of vitality. This is not reality for most people, even for the twenty or thirty-something-year-olds, but medicine and technology originally intended to help people achieve baseline health are increasingly being leveraged to close the gap. This raises the question: what is medicine for? Is medicine about restoring people to some definition of “normal” health? And if so, what about all the people contentedly living in bodies considered medically abnormal?

Our guest is Devan Stahl, author, clinical ethicist, and professor of bioethics and religion at Baylor University. Professor Stahl received her PhD in Health Care Ethics from St. Louis University, before completing her Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt University. Her scholarship focuses on disability theology and bioethics, and her most recent books include Disability's Challenge to Theology (2022) and Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body (2023). In addition to her scholarly work, Stahl volunteers as a clinical ethicist with the Supportive and Palliative Care Team at her local hospital.

Over the course of our conversation, we discuss whether it is the role of a clinical ethicist to determine what is “right” in a given situation – and if so, how that is accomplished. We explore how Silicon Valley’s promotion of the “optimized” human raises questions about the purpose of medicine, and the various ways medicine defines the idea of “normal” health. Stahl shares her experience in the healthcare system as someone with multiple sclerosis, cautioning that some providers are more comfortable focusing on the digitized version of someone’s disability than on the person themselves. Together, we imagine a doctor’s role not just in restoring patients to normality, but guiding them to flourish.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:19 - The questions that have driven Stahl’s academic career as a professor of bioethics and religion.

5:00 - The types of requests Stahl receives as a bioethicist at her local hospital.

12:51 - How Silicon Valley is skewing public perception of “health” — and the questions this raises about the purpose of medicine.

20:12 - Stahl’s experience navigating uncomfortable and confusing medical encounters as a person with disability herself.

25:24 - Stahl’s take on the “purpose” of modern medicine.

29:48 - Ways in which our society tends to value certain kinds of bodies over others.

39:36 - Imagining the role of physicians in helping patients flourish.

44:55 - How health care professionals can find deeper meaning in their work and lives.

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