Since the rise of industrialization, the modern profession of medicine has stood among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, of occupational groups in society. Medicine and its practitioners are the arbiters of life and death; of possibilities realized, possibilities dashed and possibilities reclaimed; and of evaluations of “normal” and “abnormal.” The expansion of medicine’s claim over more and more life spheres has been chronicled and criticized (see Olafsdottir, Conrad, both in this volume). In contemporary society, we turn to physicians to understand what we do, what we should eat, and whether we should punish or treat those who step outside society’s norms. And, despite claims that the power of the medical profession may be waning, no viable alternatives have come forth to replace the allopathic system. Even “complementary alternative medicine” (both indigenous and New Age) has been absorbed, transformed, or otherwise brought under its jurisdiction (Astin et al., 1998).