This book looks at the medical contributions and advances made over the last century to the present day and looks at the possible medical advances of the future. Each book evaluates the major medical issues of the time and the key individuals who pushed medical knowledge into new territory. In this title, readers can discover how advances in technology and science brought new understanding about the causes of disease and how the body works. Improved public health measures and living standards meant people were better able to resist illness, and the growing professionalism of doctors and advances in surgical procedures and drugs improved medicine in the twentieth century. This book looks at contemporary problems such as AIDS, SARS and avian flu and also confronts ethical dilemmas such as gene therapy, contraception and cosmetic surgery.