Think about It
When we
consider the debate about elective cesarean surgery, it seems apparent that
because biomedicine holds such a prominent position in our culture, it is
possible for procedures to be perpetrated and performed routinely regardless of
whether there is any causal relationship between the technology and improved
health outcomes. Consequently,
because the debate about elective cesarean surgery is framed as a matter of
"choice," the public perceives that cesarean surgery is a normal
occurrence and assumes that the broader questions of efficacy and safety have
already been considered, because biomedicine tells the truth in the public
interest. The
result may very well be, as Henci Goer suggests, that by normalizing cesarean
surgery and by attempting to convince the public that women prefer cesareans
over vaginal birth, those who have interests in the social, political and
economic power structures that support and underlie the medical system might
just "succeed in making the imaginary groundswell a reality" (Goer
2001). —
Lisa Weeks, excerpted from
"Problematizing Choice in the Elective Cesarean Debate," Midwifery Today Issue 73 — — Reference:
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