A Jurisprudence of the Body

by Chris Dietz (Editor), Mitchell Travis (Editor), Michael Thomson (Editor)

Overview

This book brings together a range of theoretical perspectives to consider fundamental questions of health law and the place of the body within it. Health, and more recently health law, has long been animated by discussions of particular bodies - whether they are disordered, diseased, or disabled - but each of these classificatory regimes claim some knowledge about the body. This edited collection aims to uncover and challenge the fundamental assumptions that underpin medico-legal knowledge claims about such bodies. This exploration is achieved through a mix of perspectives, but many contributors look towards embodiment as a perspective that understands bodies to be shaped by their institutional contexts. Much of this work alerts us to the idea that medical practitioners not only respond to healthcare issues, but also create them through their own understandings of ‘normality’ and ‘fixing’. Bodies, as a result, cannot be understood outside of, or as separate to, their medical and legal contexts. This compelling book pushes the possibility of new directions in health care and health justice.

Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030422004
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	08/05/2020
Series:	Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	610 KB

About the Author

Chris Dietz is Lecturer in Law and Social Justice at the School of Law, University of Leeds, UK.
Mitchell Travis is Lecturer in Law and Social Justice and Deputy Director for the Centre of Law and Social Justice, in the School of Law at the University of Leeds, UK.
Michael Thomson is Director of the School of Law's Centre for Law and Social Justice, University of Leeds, UK, where he is also a Chair in Health Law.

Table of Contents

1. Nobody, Anybody, Somebody, Everybody: A Jurisprudence of the Body, Chris Dietz, Mitchell Travis, and Michael Thomson.- Part I The Body of Health Law.- 2. Reasoning from the Body: Universal Vulnerability and Social Justice, Martha Albertson Fineman.- 3. Studying Public Health Law: Principles, Politics, and Populations as Patients, John Coggan.- 4. Bioinequalities: Rethinking Legal Responses to the Biological and Intergenerational Harm Caused by Inequality, Karen O’Connell and Isabel Karpin.- 5. Healthcare, Well-being, and the Regulation of Diversity in Healing, Emilie Cloatre and Nayeli Urquiza-Haas.- Part II Bodies of Health.- 6. Temporal Bodies: Emergencies, Emergence, and Intersex Embodiment, Fae Garland and Mitchell Travis.- 7. Death Before Birth: Liminal Bodies and Legal Frameworks, Karolina Kuberska, Danielle Fuller, Jeannette Littlemore, Sheelagh
McGuinness, and Sarah Turner.- 8. Depathologising Gender: Vulnerability in Trans Health Law, Chris Dietz and Ruth Pearce.- 9. Feminist Activism in the Context of Clinical Trials and Drug Roll-Out, Aziza Ahmed.- Part III Reframing Health Law Through Bodies.- 10. Establishing Boundaries for Speculation About Artificial Wombs, Ectogenesis, Gender and the Gestating Body, Claire Horn and Elizabeth Chloe Romanis.- 11. A Relational Responsibilities Framework for Children’s Healthcare Law, Jo Bridgeman.- 12. Embodied Integrity, Shaping Surgeries, and the Profoundly Disabled Child, Marie Fox, Michael Thomson, and Joshua Warburton.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Carole A. Kenner, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP, ANEF (The College of New Jersey)
Description: This book uses multiple theoretical frameworks to discuss and debate health law and the impact on health. Use of a person's vulnerability and how it changes with aging in relationship to health laws offers a unique perspective. Inclusion of the current COVID-19 pandemic, disparities, and societal privilege helps readers apply the complex content.
Purpose: The aim is to redefine health law by examining the social and political context. The argument is made that how one feels about our bodies impacts health, and how healthy we feel impacts our body, yet this perspective is rarely considered in health law. This is a deficit the book addresses (from the reviewer's perspective of the introductory material). These are worthy objectives that are met through multiple real-life examples.
Audience: The book doesn't specify an intended audience, but I believe health professionals including students and those interested in health law and policy will find this book useful. The book does meet this audience's needs. The authors and contributors are credible based on their credentials and publications.
Features: Each chapter uses a theoretical framework to discuss a societal problem and its impact on health law. Topics include universal vulnerability and social justice, bioinequalities and epigenetics, health inequities, stress, and trauma; public health and health law; health as a marketable commodity, examples of how law shapes the body-emergency situations, position of intersex people within healthcare delivery systems, trans health laws, pregnancy losses, and feminine activivism; and the final sections illustrate how health law should be and is reframed - children's health law, embodied integrity to protect profoundly disabled children, and use of artificial wombs. Topics touch on highly charged issues that impact healthcare delivery and the laws that regulate practice.
Assessment: Many books address health law but none other than this book take the position of addressing those factors that impact the laws and health itself.

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