Author(s): Sally Satel
Publisher: Basic Books
Pages: 256
Binding: Hardcover
"While the nation has been preoccupied with headline-grabbing subjects like HMO's, Medicare, and the millions of uninsured Americans -- all pressing issues indeed -- the 'indoctrinologists' have swooped in under the radar. And their prescriptions -- which ultimately are not about health, but rather about narrow ideas of social justice -- will be hazardous to our health." In short: ideas have consequences; including medical ones. Sadly, Dr. Satel cracked a couple of years later when, writing in The Wall Street Journal, she defended the Texas woman, Andrea Yates, who systematically drowned each of her children in a bathtub. Not even Dr. Satel could ultimately live up to the good ideas in her own book, even though it's still a good book for those of us who take ideas more seriously.