Question: Write a paragraph that summarizes your reaction to the reading ? Down-

Question

Question: Write a paragraph that summarizes your reaction to the reading ?

Down-to-Earth Sociology Cold-Hearted Surgeons and Their Women Victims

While doing participant observation in a hospital, sociologist Sue Fisher (1986) was surprised to hear surgeons recommend total hysterectomy (removal of both the uterus and the ovaries) when no cancer was present. When she asked why, the male doctors explained that the uterus and ovaries are “potentially disease producing.” They also said that these organs are unnecessary after the childbearing years, so why not remove them? Doctors who reviewed hysterectomies confirmed this gender-biased practice. Ninety percent of hysterectomies are avoidable. Only ten percent involve cancer (Costa 2011).
Greed is a powerful motivator in many areas of social life, and it rears its ugly head in surgical sexism (Domingo and Pellicer 2009). Surgeons make money when they do hysterectomies. The more hysterectomies they do, the more money they make. Since women, to understate the matter, are reluctant to part with these organs, surgeons have to “sell” this operation. Here is how one resident explained the “hard sell” to sociologist Diana Scully (1994):

You have to look for your surgical procedures; you have to go after patients. Because no one is crazy enough to come and say, “Hey, here I am. I want you to operate on me.” You have to sometimes convince the patient that she is really sick—if she is, of course [laughs], and that she is better off with a surgical procedure.
Used-car salespeople would love to have the powerful sales weapon that surgeons have at their disposal: To “convince” a woman to have this surgery, the doctor puts on a serious face and tells her that the examination has turned up fibroids in her uterus—and these lumps might turn into cancer. This statement is often sufficient to get the woman to buy the surgery. She starts to picture herself lying at death’s door, her sorrowful family gathered at her death bed. Then the used car salesperson—I mean, the surgeon—moves in to clinch the sale. Keeping a serious face and displaying an “I-know-how-you-feel” look, the surgeon starts to make arrangements for the surgery. What the surgeon withholds is the rest of the truth—that uterine fibroids are common, that they usually do not turn into cancer, and that the patient has several alternatives to surgery.

In case it is difficult to see how this is sexist, let’s change the context just a little. Let’s suppose that the income of some female surgeon depends on selling a specialized operation. To sell it, she systematically suggests to older men the benefits of castration—since “those organs are no longer necessary, and might cause disease.”

Explanation / Answer

The occurrence of such acts in the medicine and healthcare industry is shocking and abhorrent, but the fact that sexism in our society pervades to this level is even more disturbing. Doctors and surgeons who take the Hippocratic Oath are supposed to take medical ethics very seriously. To abuse one’s power and position by inducing fear in order to fulfill one’s greed is disquieting. These practices are also reflective of society’s attitudes with respect to a woman’s sexual organs as fulfilling any purposeful role apart from procreation.

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