An ethical question: are health professionals promoters of the status quo or of social change?

The topic of the above title has vividly interested the author for many years. Regretfully, the issues at stake have not changed for the last 25 years. As proof of this - and on purpose - references dug up and quoted are only those published before 1986. The end result has been the (re)construction of a scenario that has been stubborn to change and that looks into most of the burning questions of then and now pertaining to the title.The materials here presented are an informal, non-systematic review of the literature on the ethical, ideological and political implications of health as a science and as a praxis. The materials here collected are, in a way, "out of the box" and, in the author's view very needed. The article sheds some light on the major issues at the core of this universal discussion that - whether we like it or not - was and continues to be at the very base of our daily work as health professionals.