Regret, shame, and denials of women's voluntary sterilization

Women face extraordinary difficulty in seeking sterilization as physicians routinely deny them the procedure. Physicians defend such denials by citing the possibility of future regret, a well-studied phenomenon in women's sterilization literature. Regret is, however, a problematic emotion upon...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lalonde, Dianne (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2018]
In: Bioethics
Year: 2018, Volume: 32, Issue: 5, Pages: 281-288
IxTheo Classification:NCC Social ethics
NCH Medical ethics
Further subjects:B Regret
B Stigma
B Shame
B Sterilization
B Reproductive Rights
B Biopolitics
B reproductive freedom
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:Women face extraordinary difficulty in seeking sterilization as physicians routinely deny them the procedure. Physicians defend such denials by citing the possibility of future regret, a well-studied phenomenon in women's sterilization literature. Regret is, however, a problematic emotion upon which to deny reproductive freedom as regret is neither satisfactorily defined and measured, nor is it centered in analogous cases regarding men's decision to undergo sterilization or the decision of women to undergo fertility treatment. Why then is regret such a concern in the voluntary sterilization of women? I argue that regret is centered in women's voluntary sterilization due to pronatalism or expectations that womanhood means motherhood. Women seeking voluntary sterilization are regarded as a deviant identity that rejects what is taken to be their essential role of motherhood and they are thus seen as vulnerable to regret.
ISSN:1467-8519
Contains:Enthalten in: Bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12431