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Good, Bad and Troublesome

Infertility Physicians' Perceptions of Women Patients

STAKES, EVALUATION OF HEALTH SERVICE PRACTICES, HELSINKI maili.malin{at}stakes.fi

Clinical decision-making concerns the normal and the not normal (the Other, the different) and is marked by moral discourse. In the area of assisted reproduction technologies (ART), little is known about physicians' attitudes towards their patients, and therefore one aim of this study is to enquire into infertility clinicians' perceptions of their patients. Additionally, this study seeks to establish what kinds of patients are defined by the clinicians as Others, as less appropriate candidates for infertility treatment. In this study, clinical judgements were affected by the gendered nature of patients and by the supposed nature of potential mothers-to-be. The other patients and mothers-to-be were described in terms of their mental, physical and emotional status, and in terms of their lifestyle. The most inappropriate Other mothers-to-be were those who (or whose partner) had complicated psychosocial and health problems. A second group were described as single and supposedly lonely women, and as women who were considered too career oriented. The importance of money played a primary role in determining who is supposedly a good mother. Namely, if a woman was too rich or too stingy and career oriented, or too poor, with several psychosocial problems, her capacity for maternal love (i.e. for giving love) was questioned. The clinicians' perceptions of the roles of technology and nature in assisted reproduction technologies are also discussed.

Key Words: infertility care • nature • physicians' attitudes • technology • women patients

European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, 301-319 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1350506803010003004


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