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Diagnosis: Difference
How is justice in the delivery of health care influenced by the culture of medicine? In a groundbreaking new work of feminist bioethics, Abby L. Wilkerson examines the cultural status of the medical establishment. Challenging traditional views, she shows that morality in health care has a far-reaching impact on social justice. Situating her analysis in the context of the AIDS and women's health movements, Wilkerson explores continuing patterns of injustice in medicine, the function of health care as social control, and the unequal risk of illness and injury among different social groups. She assesses the role of medicine and bioethics in the sexual oppression of women and of gay and bisexual men, and defines the forces undermining the role of bioethics in monitoring the moral status of health care. What changes would make bioethicists more responsive to the needs of oppressed groups? Wilkerson's book points the way toward a better understanding of medical authority and brings a fresh perspective to health activism, demonstrating that a feminist and sexually inclusive analysis has much to offer in revealing the hidden cultural politics of medicine.
200 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1998
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August 15, 2020
If I'd read this 5 years ago it would have blown my mind. If I'd read it 2 years ago, I would have incorporated it into a project I was working on. Because I'm reading it now, I enjoyed it but wasn't wowed by it.
I appreciated the author's exploration of how medicine currently works as a moral agent, how it replicates existing forms of oppression in treating or dismissing (cis) women, LGB people and people of color.
I was less interested in her discussions of social contracts, just because Rawlsianism makes me roll my eyes. So even though she was critiquing arguments in that school of thought, I just didn't care.
It made me a little nervous that she didn't acknowledge the T and then she cited Janice Raymond, so I was afraid that she was going to go full terf but fortunately she didn't. She didn't talk about trans people at all, actually, which may be because this was published in 1998?? I think talking about transphobia in medical care would have enhanced her argument, but silence on this topic isn't unique to this book (Maya Dusenbery's Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick is much more recent and has the same problem).
It's written in a very academic tone. If you're OK with that and haven't read much on this topic, I would recommend it.
And now to go put Iris Young on my to-read list.
I appreciated the author's exploration of how medicine currently works as a moral agent, how it replicates existing forms of oppression in treating or dismissing (cis) women, LGB people and people of color.
I was less interested in her discussions of social contracts, just because Rawlsianism makes me roll my eyes. So even though she was critiquing arguments in that school of thought, I just didn't care.
It made me a little nervous that she didn't acknowledge the T and then she cited Janice Raymond, so I was afraid that she was going to go full terf but fortunately she didn't. She didn't talk about trans people at all, actually, which may be because this was published in 1998?? I think talking about transphobia in medical care would have enhanced her argument, but silence on this topic isn't unique to this book (Maya Dusenbery's Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick is much more recent and has the same problem).
It's written in a very academic tone. If you're OK with that and haven't read much on this topic, I would recommend it.
And now to go put Iris Young on my to-read list.
Displaying 1 of 1 review