Choice as a risk to women's health

Abstract

Choice' has long been a principal demand of the women's health movement. This paper explores some ways in which current trends in biomedicine and health care may be transforming the concept of choice, and the choices pmided to women, into risks to our well-being. The trends examined include the continuing neglect of structural constraints on women's abilities to choose; the framing of choice solely as an expression of individualism; and a mZon of health care choices for women as ways to stimulate the economy. These trends present special risks for women because they co-opt our demands for gender-based health policies to support the commercialisation of health and health care. To counter these trends' women will have to pam'cipate actively in the processes that determine what options are developed and made available to us, ensuring that the contexts oj women's lives and our understandings of risks are addressed. Only then might choice be authentic, and not a risk for health.

PGD-ens paradokser

“…Her står autonomi mot heteronomi i en antinomi. Det samme gjelder når idealer og holdninger i samfunnet virker førende på kvinnene (Krahn & Wong 2009;Lippman 1999), eksempelvis når liberalistiske og feministiske oppfatninger står mot hverandre og individualistisk selvbestemmelse står mot relasjonell autonomi (Krahn & Wong 2009).…”

‘We thought if it’s going to take two years then we need to start that now’: age, infertility risk and the timing of pregnancy in older first-time mothers

“…This medical discourse appears to have been adopted by women when considering the timing of their pregnancies, as the analysis will demonstrate and as such, the women in this study appear to be embodying the time frame (Lippman 1999) -that is, accepting that due to age, they will encounter difficulties in conceiving and thus attempt to conceive earlier. However, Hansson has argued that the association between maternal age and declining fertility is a social construction 'that does not fully reflect available medical evidence' (Hanson, 2003, p166).…”

Female genital cosmetic surgery: a new dilemma for GPs

“…In her paper 'Choice as a risk to women's health', Lippman 12 drew attention to the danger of discussing autonomy as if it were anything other than embedded in social-political structures. Regulation of all FGCS procedures, including their promotion, is a responsibility for our legislature, which is silent on the subject.…”