background although there are studies that suggest a vast expansion of medicalization of pregnancy and birth in iran, data about the rate of intervention applications caused by the medicalization in low-risk pregnancies and birth is limited. moreover, there is limited information on the effectiveness of these interventions for different modes of childbirth. objectives this study aimed to determ...

Scholars interested in the medicalization of deviance tend to draw a clear line between major institutions of social control namely law, religion, and medicine and describe a process whereby medicine becomes more dominant than other institutions in terms of defining and controlling problematic behavior (Friedson [1970] 1988). This is not surprising, as the study of the medicalization of devianc...

Western societies are characterized by a growing medicalization of life events, such as pregnancy, aging, or even death. Three concepts -medicalization, wish-fulfilling medicine, and disease mongering- are key in understanding the current practise of Medicine. Quite surprisingly, not a single study has addressed the relationship between all three of these concepts. The term medicalization expan...

Medicalization analyses have roots in sociology and have critical usefulness for understanding contemporary health issues including the 'post-2015 global health agenda'. Medicalization is more complex than just 'disease mongering' - it is a process and not only an outcome; has both positive and negative elements; can be partial rather than complete; and is often sought or challenged by patients...

The spectrum of human condition is bell shaped, and an area around the midpoint has been chosen arbitrarily to define as the norm. Physically and mentally maladaptive outliers have been treated as diseases and fell into the realm of medicine. Many "nondisease" states can creep up into medicine and with time become medicalized through medicalization because of redefining many conditions long con...

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a traditional procedure of removing the whole or part of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons—typically as a signal of ‘quality’ in the marriage market. It has been found by the World Health Organization to be harmful to the health of women, and is internationally recognized as illegal. This paper attempts to identify the social effects of FGM and its ...

This paper analyzes the palliative care of terminal patients, examining the tensions between the humanization of care and the progressive medicalization at the end-of-life situation. The research upon which the article is based adopts a qualitative methodological approach derived from interviews with professionals and patients and ethnographic observations in a palliative care unit in the City ...