John Tobin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199603299
- eISBN:
- 9780191731662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199603299.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
The formulation of the right to health in international law lists a series of explicit measures that states must pursue in order to secure the full implementation of this right. These measures, which ...
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The formulation of the right to health in international law lists a series of explicit measures that states must pursue in order to secure the full implementation of this right. These measures, which range from an obligation to reduce infant mortality to the development of preventive health care and family planning services, are extremely broad and open textured. This chapter seeks to examine the extent to which parameters can be placed around their meaning in a way that allows states and the broader interpretative community to agree on the nature of the practical steps required to secure their implementation. Although considerable deference must be given to states' margin of appreciation to allow for a context-sensitive implementation of these specific measures, this margin remains subject to the overriding caveat that whatever measures are adopted by states must be effective.Less
The formulation of the right to health in international law lists a series of explicit measures that states must pursue in order to secure the full implementation of this right. These measures, which range from an obligation to reduce infant mortality to the development of preventive health care and family planning services, are extremely broad and open textured. This chapter seeks to examine the extent to which parameters can be placed around their meaning in a way that allows states and the broader interpretative community to agree on the nature of the practical steps required to secure their implementation. Although considerable deference must be given to states' margin of appreciation to allow for a context-sensitive implementation of these specific measures, this margin remains subject to the overriding caveat that whatever measures are adopted by states must be effective.
Handel Reynolds
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450938
- eISBN:
- 9780801466007
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450938.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
In 2009, an influential panel of medical experts ignited a controversy when they recommended that most women should not begin routine mammograms to screen for breast cancer until the age of fifty, ...
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In 2009, an influential panel of medical experts ignited a controversy when they recommended that most women should not begin routine mammograms to screen for breast cancer until the age of fifty, reversing guidelines they had issued just seven years before when they recommended forty as the optimal age to start getting mammograms. While some praised the new recommendation as sensible given the smaller benefit women under fifty derive from mammography, many women's groups, health care advocates, and individual women saw the guidelines as privileging financial considerations over women's health and a setback to decades-long efforts to reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer. This book notes that this episode was only the most recent controversy in the turbulent history of mammography since its introduction in the early 1970s. The book shows how pivotal decisions made during mammography's initial launch made it all but inevitable that the test would be contentious. It describes how, at several key points in its history, the emphasis on mammography screening as a fundamental aspect of women's preventive health care coincided with social and political developments, from the women's movement in the early 1970s to breast cancer activism in the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, aggressive promotion of mammography made the screening tool the cornerstone of a huge new industry. The book addresses both the benefits and risks of mammography, charting debates that have weighed the early detection of aggressively malignant tumors against unnecessary treatments resulting from the identification of slow-growing and non-life-threatening cancers.Less
In 2009, an influential panel of medical experts ignited a controversy when they recommended that most women should not begin routine mammograms to screen for breast cancer until the age of fifty, reversing guidelines they had issued just seven years before when they recommended forty as the optimal age to start getting mammograms. While some praised the new recommendation as sensible given the smaller benefit women under fifty derive from mammography, many women's groups, health care advocates, and individual women saw the guidelines as privileging financial considerations over women's health and a setback to decades-long efforts to reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer. This book notes that this episode was only the most recent controversy in the turbulent history of mammography since its introduction in the early 1970s. The book shows how pivotal decisions made during mammography's initial launch made it all but inevitable that the test would be contentious. It describes how, at several key points in its history, the emphasis on mammography screening as a fundamental aspect of women's preventive health care coincided with social and political developments, from the women's movement in the early 1970s to breast cancer activism in the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, aggressive promotion of mammography made the screening tool the cornerstone of a huge new industry. The book addresses both the benefits and risks of mammography, charting debates that have weighed the early detection of aggressively malignant tumors against unnecessary treatments resulting from the identification of slow-growing and non-life-threatening cancers.
Dan Zuberi
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450723
- eISBN:
- 9780801469824
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450723.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
This concluding chapter suggests measures for hospitals to reduce infection, as well as provide better economic opportunities for the working poor. Countries such as the Netherlands and Norway have ...
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This concluding chapter suggests measures for hospitals to reduce infection, as well as provide better economic opportunities for the working poor. Countries such as the Netherlands and Norway have done an extraordinary job of keeping rates of hospital-acquired infections extremely low. They have been proactive about hospital hygiene and other infection-control approaches and have largely avoided outsourcing hospital support services. From their example the chapter argues that focusing on preventive health care and public welfare are far more efficient ways of obtaining better health outcomes. Moreover, better health care is also dependent on the well-being of health support staff—in short, a new movement dedicated to fighting germs must also, on a fundamental level, uplift its workers.Less
This concluding chapter suggests measures for hospitals to reduce infection, as well as provide better economic opportunities for the working poor. Countries such as the Netherlands and Norway have done an extraordinary job of keeping rates of hospital-acquired infections extremely low. They have been proactive about hospital hygiene and other infection-control approaches and have largely avoided outsourcing hospital support services. From their example the chapter argues that focusing on preventive health care and public welfare are far more efficient ways of obtaining better health outcomes. Moreover, better health care is also dependent on the well-being of health support staff—in short, a new movement dedicated to fighting germs must also, on a fundamental level, uplift its workers.
Sujata Mukherjee
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199468225
- eISBN:
- 9780199087426
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468225.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Cultural History
This book analyses the interface between medicine and colonial society through the lens of gender. Based on hitherto unused primary sources the work traces how since almost the beginning of the ...
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This book analyses the interface between medicine and colonial society through the lens of gender. Based on hitherto unused primary sources the work traces how since almost the beginning of the nineteenth century the growth of hospital medicine in Bengal created a space—albeit small—for providing Western health care to female patients. It observes that, unlike in the colonial setup, before the advent of hospital medicine women were treated mostly by female practitioners of indigenous therapies who had commendable skill as practitioners. The book also explores the linkages of growth of medical education for women and the role of the Indian reformers as well as British administrators in this process. The manuscript tackles several crucial questions including those of racial discrimination, reproductive health practices, sexual health, famines and mortality, and the role of women’s agencies and other organizations in popularizing Western medicine and health care. Thus this work, explores the different processes which contributed towards the shaping of the discursive domain of medicine with a bearing on women’s health as well as highlights different dimensions of empirical developments. In the process it enriches our understanding of colonialism, gender, and politics of medicine in the nineteenth and twentieth century in a novel way.Less
This book analyses the interface between medicine and colonial society through the lens of gender. Based on hitherto unused primary sources the work traces how since almost the beginning of the nineteenth century the growth of hospital medicine in Bengal created a space—albeit small—for providing Western health care to female patients. It observes that, unlike in the colonial setup, before the advent of hospital medicine women were treated mostly by female practitioners of indigenous therapies who had commendable skill as practitioners. The book also explores the linkages of growth of medical education for women and the role of the Indian reformers as well as British administrators in this process. The manuscript tackles several crucial questions including those of racial discrimination, reproductive health practices, sexual health, famines and mortality, and the role of women’s agencies and other organizations in popularizing Western medicine and health care. Thus this work, explores the different processes which contributed towards the shaping of the discursive domain of medicine with a bearing on women’s health as well as highlights different dimensions of empirical developments. In the process it enriches our understanding of colonialism, gender, and politics of medicine in the nineteenth and twentieth century in a novel way.
