Social class and medical decisionmaking: A neglected topic in bioethics

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 41-56

  Levin, Betty Wolder ^a   Schiller, Nina Glick ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME; ADOLESCENT; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE TO HEALTH; BIOETHICS; BIOETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS; CASE REPORT; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; DECISION MAKING; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; ETHICIST; FEMALE; HEALTH; HEART DISEASE; HUMAN; MALE; MEDICAL ETHICS; MISCELLANEOUS NAMED GROUPS; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; TERMINAL CARE; TREATMENT WITHDRAWAL; TRUST; UNITED STATES; VULNERABLE POPULATION;

BIOETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP;

ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY SYNDROME; ADOLESCENT; BIOETHICS; CULTURAL DIVERSITY; DECISION MAKING; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; ETHICISTS; ETHICS, CLINICAL; FEMALE; HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, PRACTICE; HEART DISEASES; HUMANS; MALE; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PERSONS; RURAL HEALTH; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL VALUES; TERMINAL CARE; TRUST; UNITED STATES; VULNERABLE POPULATIONS; WITHHOLDING TREATMENT;

EID: 0032325011     PISSN: 09631801     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0963180198701057     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. Stack C. Call to Home: African Americans Reclaim the Rural South. New York: Basic Books, 1996: 8-9.
2. The concept of class we explore in this article draws on the Marxist analysis of class, with its focus on the extraction of surplus value at the point of production, and Weber's concept of status group, with its emphasis on consumption, but differs from both these classic theorists. In anthropology we have been influenced by the work of the Lynds in their classic ethnography Middletown. (Lynd RS, Lynd HM. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1929). We are perhaps closest to Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "habitus" but our invocation of lived experience, positioning, and life-path is designed to emphasize change over time. See, for example, Bourdieu P. Distinctions: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984.
3. The concept of class we explore in this article draws on the Marxist analysis of class, with its focus on the extraction of surplus value at the point of production, and Weber's concept of status group, with its emphasis on consumption, but differs from both these classic theorists. In anthropology we have been influenced by the work of the Lynds in their classic ethnography Middletown. (Lynd RS, Lynd HM. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1929). We are perhaps closest to Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "habitus" but our invocation of lived experience, positioning, and life-path is designed to emphasize change over time. See, for example, Bourdieu P. Distinctions: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984.
4. For a very useful effort to develop a concept of class within the health literature, see Johnson JV, Hall EM. Class, work, and health. In: Amick BC, Levine S, Tarlow AR, Walsh DC, eds. Society & Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995:247-71.
5. The Nation. 25 August/2 September, 1996:18-19.
6. Brown KH. Descriptive and normative ethics: class, context and confidentiality for mothers with HIV. Social Science and Medicine 1993;36:195-202.
7. Addington-Hall J, McCarthy M. Regional study of care for the dying: methods and sample characteristics. Palliative Medicine 1995;9(1):27-35.
8. Saunders DC, Block S. Ethics for the rich nations only [letter]. Journal of Palliative Care 1995; 11(1):55-6.
9. Chica MD, Barranco E. Fertility control by natural methods, analysis of 218 cycles. Advances in Contraception 1994;10:33-6.
10. Sullivan L. In the path of Daedalus: middle-class Australians' attitudes to embryo research. British Journal of Sociology 1993;44:271-302.
11. BIOETHICSLINE is a free bibliographic database service offered by the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature, at the Kennedy Institute, Georgetown University. In the United States, they can be reached at a toll free number: (800) 633-3849.
12. For more discussion of social class and differences in health status, see: Dutton DB. Social class, health, and illness. In: Aiken LH, Mechanic D, eds. Applications of Social Science to Clinical Medicine and Health Policy. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986:31-62; Amick BC, Levine S, Tarlow AR, Walsh DC. Society & Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
13. For more discussion of social class and differences in health status, see: Dutton DB. Social class, health, and illness. In: Aiken LH, Mechanic D, eds. Applications of Social Science to Clinical Medicine and Health Policy. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986:31-62; Amick BC, Levine S, Tarlow AR, Walsh DC. Society & Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
14. Williams DR, Collins C. U.S. socioeconomic and racial differences in health: patterns and explanations. In: Brown P, ed. Perspectives in Medical Sociology. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1996:5-43.