Affiliation:
1. PhD student in healthcare ethics at Saint Louis University
Abstract
Unconsented pelvic exams under anesthesia are assaults cloaked in defense of healthcare education. Preemptive linguistic qualifiers “presumed” or “implied” attempt to justify such violations with flippancy toward their oxymoronic implications: to suggest a priori that consent can be assumed undermines its otherwise standalone social, ethical, and medico-legal reverence. In this paper I conceptualize “medical sexual assault” and argue that presumed consent for intimate exams exemplifies its definition. By bluntly describing pelvic exams as “penetration,” this work aims to reify the intimate reality of the clinical label “pelvic exam” and to call attention to cisheteronormative and androcentric assumptions involved in its practice. Additionally, this scholarship seeks to create a foundation toward broader work in conceptualizing clinical rape culture. Given recent national survey data indicating a surprising frequency of unconsented intimate exams, detailed language as to their problematics is necessary for ongoing legal and ethical efforts. Explicit consent for intimate exams must be the standard of care for conscious and unconscious patients.
Publisher
University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
Subject
Philosophy,Health (social science),Gender Studies
Reference38 articles.
1. Practicing Pelvic Examinations by Medical Students on Women Under Anesthesia
2. Basile, Kathleen C., Sharon G. Smith, Matthew J. Breiding, et al. 2014. “CDC Sexual Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements.” Centers for Disease Control, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/sv_surveillance_definitionsl-2009-a.pdf
3. CONSENT FOR VAGINAL EXAMINATION BY STUDENTS ON ANAESTHETISED PATIENTS
Cited by
3 articles.
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