Public Health vs Personal Autonomy

HELP for Mothers : Solutions to the maternal health care crisis in America

“Where is the societally acceptable line between public health and personal autonomy in life and in labor?”

Autonomy, defined as being free from outside intervention is a very important notion in Western culture. And yet, as social distancing and self quarantine sweep the globe, people are voluntarily giving up personal liberty in favor of the ‘greater good’. Over the last several centuries, health and disease changed from curse / chance to something that could be controlled. This lead to state coordinated interventions such as irrigation and sewerage systems all the way to public health clinics, policy and even the passage of laws. With industrialization, the population appeared as a ‘problem’, an object of monitoring, regulation, analysis and intervention. Public health policy has reached a new zenith as millions of people in America and millions more around the globe are told to ‘stay home’ to protect their neighbors from an 'invisible enemy’. In maternity care, because of ‘State Emergency Orders’ previous inalienable rights to self-determination in medical decision-making, choice in support people, and sovereignty of parental rights have all been eliminated. Industrialized birth is being coming the norm across the US and Canada, even as many opt out of the system entirely. Join human rights lawyer, Kesha Chiappinelli, JD, IBCLC and maternal/child health investigator Augustine Colebrook, MA-MCHS as they dissect one segment of the maternity crisis in the United States every week.

Links & References
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD Interviewed by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution on 3/27/20
Sam Vaknin, PhD in Philosophy, Physics & Phycology recorded on 4/13/20

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