A first-hand account of the scandal at New York's Willowbrook Home for the handicapped, the five-year court battle that followed, and the fate of the home's 5,400 handicapped residents

The Willowbrook Wars

Rothman, David J.

Rothman, Sheila M.

Criminal Law

Harper&Row

As tuberculosis makes a dramatic comeback, a moving social history of the disease and its effects, covering 150 years, demonstrates how several western cities were settled by people trying to escape the dreaded ailment through healthful outdoor living.

Living In The Shadow Of Death: Tuberculosis And The Social Experience Of Illness In America

Medical Books

Medicine

Basic Books

Tuberculosis-once the cause of as many as one in five deaths in the U. S. -crossed all boundaries of class and gender, but the methods of treatment for men and women differed radically. While men were encouraged to go out to sea or to the open country, women were expected to stay at home, surrounded by family, to anticipate a lingering death. Several women, however, chose rather to head for the drier climates of the West and build new lives on their own. But with the discovery of the tubercle bacillus in 1882 and the establishment of sanatoriums, both men and women were relegated to lives of seclusion, sacrificing autonomy for the prospect of a cure. In Living in the Shadow of Death Sheila Rothman presents the story of tuberculosis from the perspective of those who suffered, and in doing so helps us to understand the human side of the disease-and to cope with its resurgence. The letters, diaries, and journals piece together what it was like to experience tuberculosis, and eloquently reveal the tenacity and resolve with which people faced it. "A fascinating and powerful book. . . compelling reading. Tuberculosis was a disease, now reemerging, that killed more Americans, young or old, rich or poor, than any other disease, until well into the twentieth century. It shaped our culture, determined careers, blighted lives. Rothman writes beautifully and with great sensitivity about the human condition. The book will, I believe, become a classic in the field". -David E. Rodgers, Cornell Medical College

Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History

History

Americas

Johns Hopkins University Press

Addresses the issues at the heart of international medicine and social responsibility.During the last half-century many international declarations have proclaimed health care to be a fundamental human right. But high aspirations repeatedly confront harsh realities, in societies both rich and poor. To illustrate this disparity, David and Sheila Rothman bring together stories from their investigations around the world into medical abuses. A central theme runs through their account: how the principles of human rights, including bodily integrity, informed consent, and freedom from coercion, should guide physicians and governments in dealing with patients and health care.Over the past two decades, the Rothmans have visited post-Ceausescu Romania, where they uncovered the primitive medical practices that together with state oppression caused hundreds of orphans to develop AIDS. They have monitored the exploitative international traffic in organs in India, China, Singapore, and the Philippines. One of the most controversial questions they explore is experimentation on human beings, whether in studies of the effects of radioactive iron on pregnant women in 1940s Tennessee or in contemporary trials of AIDS drugs in the third world. And they examine a number of rulings by South Africa’s Constitutional Court that have suggested practical ways of reconciling the right to health care with its society’s limited resources.Whether discussing the training of young doctors in the US, the effects of segregation on medicine in Zimbabwe, or proposals for rationing health care, David and Sheila Rothman conclude that an ethical and professional concern for observing medicine’s oldest commandment—do no harm—must be joined with a profound commitment to protecting human rights.

Trust is Not Enough: Bringing Human Rights to Medicine

New York Review Books

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Books by Rothman, Sheila M.