Consciousness Raising Exercise #14

A great deal of controversy has been generated by each of the following topics. Intensely passionate arguments have been made and a great deal of medical knowledge used to educate, intimidate, manipulate, and excoriate people who hold opposing viewpoints on these issues:

AIDS
RU-486
Liposuction
Gun Control
Alcohol Abuse
Penile Implants
Domestic Violence
Safe Sex Education
Alzheimer's Disease
The Family Leave Act
Rights of Nonsmokers
Weight Loss Techniques
Legalization of Marijuana
Physician-Assisted Suicide
Domestic Partner Benefits
Needle Exchange Programs
The Right-To-Life Movement
A Woman's Freedom of Choice
Single-Payer Health Care Reform
Unethical Behavior By Physicians
Health Services for the Mentally Ill
The Right to Universal Health Care
Relocation of Convicted Sex Offenders
Increased Funding for Cancer Research
Funding of Drug Rehabilitation Programs

Start a discussion group with your fellow doctors and medical students to examine how each one of these issues has affected your personal and professional lives. Explore any new language that has developed around these issues and how that language might be used in dictating medical reports.