Medicine and medicalization: a response to Purdy.
Many feminists are critical of the practices and institutions that medicalize people's lives, especially the lives of women and other members of marginalized groups. I argue that this critique does not necessarily imply a rejection of medicine. I give a brief analysis of the concept of medicalization that supports the view that one can desire medicine without desiring medicalization. I then discuss the relations among what is considered natural, socially constructed, and medicalized.
Garry
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Department of Philosophy, California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032-8114. agarry@calstatela.edu
D028661:Complicity; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D010684:Philosophy; D012962:Sociology, Medical; D014930:Women; D016387:Women's Health