Medical Decision Making and Fetal Interests in America, 1960 to the Present

Datum
17. Jan­u­ar 2024 

Advanc­ing Health Care Equi­ty Speak­er Series

Lec­ture by Rebec­ca Kluchin from Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty, Sacramento
Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 17

The talk will be at 11:30am in Bet­ty Irene Moore Hall room 3400, and also on zoom.

Kluchin will show how doc­tors, hos­pi­tal admin­is­tra­tors, lawyers, judges, and law­mak­ers employed claims of fetal per­son­hood to com­pel preg­nant women to under­go treat­ment they refused on behalf of the fetus­es they car­ried between 1960 and the present. The vast major­i­ty of patients were poor women of col­or, who lacked the sta­tus and resources to com­bat the white, male pro­fes­sion­als who inter­vened in their care. The sto­ries described in this talk demon­strate that the pol­i­tics and prac­tices of fetal per­son­hood in Amer­i­ca extend beyond abor­tion and into the realm of med­ical deci­sion-mak­ing and rein­force the cen­tral role that race and racism play in the prac­tice and expe­ri­ence of Amer­i­can medicine.

More infor­ma­tion about the speak­er series is avail­able here and here