Chuck Grimes wrote:
> ______
>
> The key problem is that pre-natal screening, a medical application of
> biology, was only developed that is socially constructed to predict
> the appearance of Abby Normal then get rid of her. (Remember, Young
> Dr. Frankenstein?).
>
Yep I know the primary doctor who developed the technique. He lives
near here and the intent was to detect "abnormal" fetus. Search and destroy.
> In other words, law and medicine have already socially constructed a
> list of biological attributes that make Abby a freak of nature and
> have invented a predictive means to deal with her appearance in
> advance. To wit, extermination.
It is called the medicalization of life. Those who fit the
insitutional mode pass, those who do not, fail.
>
> Once that the foreknowledge of apparence has been socially
> constructed, it then appears as a biological, physical and objective
> fact.
Therein lies the oppression from the medical industry. Over the years medicine has convinced many people that "normal" is preferable over "abnormal." It is horse shit. These concepts also developed with the rise of industrial capitalism - as you know, it is my theory that capitalist production is the backdrop for these medical attitudes.
What many doctors really can't stand is when they cannot cure someone.
That is so upsetting to the power/ego it bursts the blood vessels in the brain. Disability is not curable, nor should we be subjected to the notion that we need to be cured. But some do see us as a constant reminder to them of their "failures." Unfortunately this is the era we live in.
"Not only has the body been perceived, interpreted, and represented differently in different epochs, but it has also been lived differently, brought into being within widely dissimilar material cultures, subjected to various technologies and means of control, and incorporated into different rhythms of production and consumption, pleasure and pain." (Gallagher and Laquer, 1987).
Lets just work for social justice in the times ahead. It is possible! I deeply appreciate your sensitivity.
Marta