B. Cameron Webb, M.D., J.D., is an Assistant Professor in the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he is the Director of Health Policy and Equity for the Department of Public Health Sciences and a Hospitalist in the Department of Medicine. Dayna Bowen Matthew, J.D., Ph.D., is the William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law and the F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties and Human Rights at the University of Virginia School of Law. She holds an appointment in the School of Medicine's Department of Public Health Sciences.
J Law Med Ethics. 2018 Sep;46(3):588-594. doi: 10.1177/1073110518804201.
"Medicalization" has been a contentious notion since its introduction centuries ago. While some scholars lamented a medical overreach into social domains, others hailed its promise for social justice advocacy. Against the backdrop of a growing commitment to health equity across the nation, this article reviews historical interpretations of medicalization, offers an application of the term to non-biologic risk factors for disease, and presents the case of housing the demonstrate the great potential of medicalizing poverty.
“医学化”（Medicalization）这一概念从几个世纪前提出以来就一直颇具争议。一些学者对医学过度涉足社会领域感到惋惜，而另一些学者则对其促进社会正义的前景表示欢迎。本文在全国日益致力于实现健康公平的背景下，回顾了医学化的历史解释，将其应用于疾病的非生物风险因素，并以住房为例说明了将贫困医学化的巨大潜力。
