Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Welcome to this talk.
My name is Hub Zwart,
I'm a Professor of Philosophy
at the Faculty of Science,
Radboud University, Nijmegen
in the Netherlands.
I would like to talk
to you today about a topic
which I think is quite timely,
personalized medicine.
Personalized medicine
is a new development
within the medical research
which, according
to some at least,
could have enormous
consequences for healthcare,
but also more broadly,
let's say on a cultural level,
it could change
the way we see ourselves
and we think about
ourselves as human beings.
0:34
So I will talk about
personalized medicine,
the technologies
that it involves,
the consequences it may have.
I will talk about this from
my philosophical perspective
because, well, I think
that the cultural dimension,
so to speak,
the societal dimension
of personalized medicine
may be at least as fascinating
as the purely medical level.
I will talk about
personalized medicine
also as a way to achieve
what we tend to call
in philosophy,
self-management.
So let's say the old idea
of power to the patients,
and the idea is that
personalized medicine
and the technologies
that are involved in that
will finally allow us,
patients, citizens,
to become self-empowered,
to become the managers
of our own health condition.
I think that is
a fascinating ideal,
at the same time,
I'm a bit skeptical about it
and I'll explain my
reasons for being so
later on in my lecture.
Before going really
into the presence
and into what
personalized medicine is,
and before going
into the case study
I will use to elucidate and clarify
personalized medicine and
self-management a bit further,
I would first of all like to
give an historical introduction
because in order
to really understand
what personalized medicine is
and what it may mean
for human existence
and human life
and human health,
I think it is important to see
this development against,
let's say,
the historical backdrop,
the historical horizon.
And that's why I would
want to go back with you
to a very important event.
