From egg & sperm to reconceiving medical education: Why teaching about metaphor is essential to remedy injustice

Noelle Molé Liston, Jennifer Karlin and Emily Martin

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 374, issue C

Abstract: This essay examines the lasting impact of Emily Martin's groundbreaking 1991 work, “The Egg and the Sperm,” by tracing the role of metaphors in science and medicine. Through interviews with Martin, the authors create an intellectual lineage for the essay and explore its contemporary significance. They emphasize Martin's call to “wake up sleeping metaphors” and propose integrating metaphor analysis into medical education. This approach aims to help healthcare professionals recognize and interpret metaphors, which shape our understanding of biology and can introduce bias, thereby enhancing the quality of patient care.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625002874
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:374:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625002874

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117957

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().