No, pregnancy is not a disease
Journal article
Colgrove, N. and Rodger, D. (2024). No, pregnancy is not a disease. Journal of Medical Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2024-109922
Authors | Colgrove, N. and Rodger, D. |
---|---|
Abstract | Anna Smajdor and Joona Räsänen argue that we have good reason to classify pregnancy as a disease. They discuss five accounts of disease and argue that each account either implies that pregnancy is a disease or if it does not, it faces problems. This strategy allows Smajdor and Räsänen to avoid articulating their own account of disease. Consequently, they cannot establish that pregnancy a disease, only that plausible accounts of disease suggest this. Some readers will dismiss Smajdor and Räsänen's claims as counterintuitive. By analogy, if a mathematical proof concludes '2+2=5', readers will know-without investigation-that an error occurred. Rather than dismiss Smajdor and Räsänen's work, however, the easiest way to undermine their argument is to describe at least one plausible account of disease that (1) excludes pregnancy and (2) avoids the problems they raise for it. This is our strategy. We focus on dysfunction accounts of disease. After outlining Smajdor and Räsänen's main arguments against dysfunction accounts, we explain why pregnancy is not a disease on these accounts. Next, we defend dysfunction accounts against the three problems that Smajdor and Räsänen raise. If successful, then contra Smajdor and Räsänen, at least one plausible account of disease does not imply that pregnancy is a disease. We suspect that defenders of other accounts can respond similarly. Yet, we note that insofar as dysfunction accounts align with the commonsense intuition that pregnancy is not a disease, this, all else being equal, seems like a point in their favour. |
Keywords | Reproductive Medicine; Feminism; Ethics- Medical; Embryos and Fetuses; Women |
Year | 2024 |
Journal | Journal of Medical Ethics |
Publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
ISSN | 1473-4257 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2024-109922 |
Web address (URL) | https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2024/05/15/jme-2024-109922 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 15 May 2024 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 13 Apr 2024 |
Deposited | 04 Jul 2024 |
Accepted author manuscript | License File Access Level Open |
Permalink -
https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/974z5
Download files
18
total views19
total downloads0
views this month0
downloads this month