Abortion and the Private Practice of Medicine - Softcover

Imber, Jonathan B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1412864216 ISBN 13: 9781412864213

Publisher: Routledge, 2017

Synopsis

Originally published in 1986, Abortion and the Private Practice of Medicine was the first book to look at abortion from the perspective of physicians in private practice. Jonathan B. Imber spent two years observing and interviewing all twenty-six of the obstetrician-gynecologists in “Daleton,” a city that did not have an abortion clinic. The decision as to whether, when, and how to perform abortions was therefore essentially up to the individual doctor. Imber begins the volume with a historical survey of medical views on abortion and the medical profession’s response to the legalization of abortion in the United States. Quoting extensively from his interviews, he looks at various characteristics of doctors that may affect their professional opinion on abortion: their age, gender, religious background, and length of residence in the community; the nature of their training and prior experience; and the setting of the practice (whether group or solo). Imber found that the physicians’ reasons for agreeing or refusing to perform abortions revealed considerable differences of opinion about how they construe their responsibilities.

Imber shows that many of the physicians he interviewed were deeply ambivalent about abortion, approving in general of a woman’s right to an abortion but not wishing to perform it themselves. He argues that until abortion loses its status as a morally and politically controversial matter, it will remain the doctor’s dilemma. A new introduction and epilogue by the author updates this enduring controversy. He also gives a personal account of the dilemmas of writing about controversial matters as a sociologist.

About this title

About the Author:

Jonathan B. Imber is Jean Glasscock Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College. 

From Library Journal:

In this book, sociologist Imber explores "the nature of obstetrical conservatism and its relation to the provision of abortion and family planning." He does this primarily by extrapolating from his interviews of 26 ob/gyn physicians in Daleton, a pseudonymous Eastern city. After a brief but insightful overview of the private physician's role in the history of abortion in this country, the rest of the book "has more to say about doctors' responsibilities toward the practice of medicine than about the politics, law, or ethics of abortion." The real subject is how some ob/gyns deal with the personal dilemmas inherent in their role in this issue, and it makes for interesting reading, even if there are no surprises. The writing is clear and thorough. A valuable commentary on physician, and human, behavior; for subject and university collections. Nancy B. Burrell, M.L.S., IBID Inc., Sarasota, Fla.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1412864216
• ISBN 13: 9781412864213
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 204