The multiple meanings of 'risk

Views on the abortion of non-viable fetuses among Brazilian medical doctors and magistrates

Bibliographic Data

ID2489036
AuthorsJuliana Lopes De Macedo (0000-0002-7080-048X, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume12
Issue1
Pages204-230
Publication date2015-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueVibrant Virtual Brazilian Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1809-4341 • E-ISSN: 1809-4341
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/1809-43412015v12n1p204
OpenAlexW2409438395
SciELOS1809-43412015000100204
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

The article seeks to understand the conceptions of 'risk' produced in the medical field as they come to be interpreted in the legal field. It draws on legal decisions concerning authorization for aborting fetuses bearing anomalies incompatible with life, and on non-directive interviews with medical doctors and magistrates. The category of 'risk' was found to be subject to considerable manipulation by both doctors and magistrates in being deployed as moral justification for the abortion of non-viable fetuses. Abortion is thus displaced from the sphere of individual choice to the domain of therapeutic abortion. The article also highlights the polyvalence of risk discourse, since this notion is deployed both to affirm and to deny legal authorizations for abortion, and to attribute responsibility for abortion decisions to doctors

Abortion · Authorization · Computer security · Directive · Field (mathematics · Political science · Pregnancy · Subject (documents · Therapeutic abortion · Computer Science · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Global Maternal and Child Health · Law · Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare · Medicine · Psychology

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