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Conceiving of Products and the Products of Conception: Reflections on Commodification, Consumption, ART, and Abortion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Jody Lyneé Madeira
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Extract

Thorny and difficult questions permeate the issue of commodification of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and abortion. Are ART and abortion services or medical treatment? Are those who seek them patients or consumers? How should we understand the complex relationship between money, markets, choice, and the care relationship?

This paper rejects the dichotomy between patient and consumer roles and focuses instead on how attributes of each are meaningful to those seeking health care. Arguing that health care is already commodified, it suggests that both medicine and the market offer strategies for handling commodification. The important questions are how we understand these attributes and their role in care relationships, and which attributes we should encourage. The medical profession and patient role have long accommodated commodification, using fiduciary roles, flat fees and opaque pricing to distance payment and pricing from care provision.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , Summer 2015 , pp. 293 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2015

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