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Medicalization, Medical Necessity, and Feminist Medicine
Author(s) -
Purdy Laura
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
bioethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.494
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-8519
pISSN - 0269-9702
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8519.00235
Subject(s) - medicalization , appeal , meaning (existential) , embodied cognition , power (physics) , theme (computing) , creatures , biomedicine , sociology , bioethics , engineering ethics , medicine , epistemology , political science , law , psychiatry , computer science , engineering , natural (archaeology) , philosophy , physics , genetics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , biology , history , operating system
New and proposed medical technologies continually challenge our vision of what constitutes appropriate medical treatment. As scholars and consumers grapple with the meaning of innovation, one common critical theme to surface is that it constitutes undesirable medicalization. But we are embodied creatures who can often benefit from medical knowledge; in addition, rejection of medicalization may be in some cases based on an untenable appeal to nature. Harnessing the power of medicine for women’s welfare requires us to rethink the goals of medicine as well as implement fundamental reforms.