Troubled Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Postmodernism, Medical Ethics, and the Body

Published by Duke University Press 1995

Troubled Bodies

Critical Perspectives on Postmodernism, Medical Ethics, and the Body

Edited by: Paul A. Komesaroff

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822379782

Overview
Contents

About this book

Setting out the implications of the postmodern condition for medical ethics, Troubled Bodies challenges the contemporary paradigms of medical ethics and reconceptualizes the nature of the field. Drawing on recent developments in philosophy, philosophy of science, and feminist theory, this volume seeks to expand familiar ethical reflections on medicine to incorporate new ways of thinking about the body and the dilemmas raised by recent developments in medical techniques.
These essays examine the ways in which the consideration of ethical questions is shaped by the structures of knowledge and communication at work in clinical practice, by current assumptions regarding the concept of the body, and by the social and political implications of both. Representing various perspectives including medicine, nursing, philosophy, and sociology, these essays look anew at issues of abortion, reproductive technologies, the doctor-patient relationship, the social construction of illness, the cultural assumptions and consequences of medicine, and the theoretical presuppositions underlying modern psychiatry. Diverging from the tenets of mainstream bioethics, Troubled Bodies suggests that, rather than searching for the correct "coherent perspective" from which to draw ethical principles, we must apprehend the complexity and diversity of the discursive systems within which we dwell.

Author / Editor information

Paul A. Komesaroff is Executive Director, Eleanor Shaw Centre for the Study of Medicine, Society, and Law, Baker Medical Research Institute, Australia

Reviews

"Troubled Bodies draws on philosophical developments that question the reigning paradigms in ethics and, accordingly, will open new avenues as it reimagines the very nature of medical ethics."—Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University

"The approach taken by these essays to the problem of the body by way of matters and debates in medical ethics is certainly instructive and productive. Troubled Bodies presents an excellent introduction to the philosophical and cultural settings of a postmodern medical ethics."—Mark Seltzer, Cornell University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: postmodern medical ethics? Paul A. Komesaroff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Divide and multiply: culture and politics in the new medical order Doug White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
Abortion and embodiment Catriona Mackenzie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
From bioethics to microethics: ethical debate and clinical medicine Paul A. Komesaroff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
Science, medicine, and illness: rediscovering the patient as a person Paul Redding Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
The body politic Peter Murphy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Whose body? Feminist views on reproductive technology Max Charlesworth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Making babies, making sense: reproductive technologies, postmodernity, and the ambiguities of feminism Alison Caddick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Bodies and subjects: medical ethics and feminism Philipa Rothfield Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
The body biomedical ethics forgets Rosalyn Diprose Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
Female bodies and food: a case of ethics and psychiatry Denise Russell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 256

eBook

Published: November 14, 1995
ISBN: 9780822379782