Joshua May

Joshua May and the Search for Philosophical Nuance

In his teaching and his research, philosopher Joshua May reminds us that binary, all-or-nothing arguments often rest on false dichotomies.
DSM-5

What’s a Mental Health Diagnosis For?

Following the publication of the DSM-5, mental health professionals debated the expansion of “mental illness” to include normal parts of the human condition.
J. Marion Sims: Gynecologic Surgeon, from "The History of Medicine"

Legacies Lost and Found

Say Anarcha tells the story of the enslaved women experimented on by a self-aggrandizing gynecologist. Its related online archive aims to reinvent the nature of bibliography.
Protestors demonstrate during a rally against the transgender bathroom rights repeal at Thomas Paine Plaza February 25, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Transgender Legal Battles: A Timeline

New laws regarding transgender youth are based on the assumption that the gender binary is natural.
A screenshot from Squid Game

The Gruesome Truth at the Heart of Squid Game

Would you be willing to play games to get out of debt? Would you sell your organs?
A male doctor sitting down and looking pensive

How Doctors Make End-of-Life Choices

Many people facing the end of their life receive treatments that ultimately have no benefit. A team of researchers set out to find out why.
White matter fibres

Can Zapping Your Brain Really Make You Smarter?

Early scientific results on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) show promise, but are they enough to support a multi-billion-dollar industry?
A 19th-century advertisement for Hood's Tooth Powder

How the Ban on Medical Advertising Hurt Women Doctors

Intended to protect consumers from unscrupulous quackery, a nineteenth-century ban on medical advertising proved to be a double-edged sword.
Mouse embryo

Get Ready For Human-Animal Hybrids

New progress in stem-cell research raises some thorny ethical questions.
An empty wheelchair

The Complicated Issue of Transableism

Some people born in able bodies feel as if they were meant to have disabilities. How should the medical community be responding?