In a society shaped by deep inequalities, where healthcare and legal systems often reinforce class, caste, religion, and gender hierarchies, this book offers a powerful examination of patienthood in India. Through its critical approach, it seeks to disrupt binaries―such as universalistic and particularistic values and data versus theory―while decentering normative discourses by foregrounding lived experiences within the context. It offers philosophical and conceptual insights that extend far beyond local variations and contexts, challenging dominant narratives in global discourses on medical decision-making and concepts such as informed consent, autonomy, and respect.

This book critiques the archetype of the “passive patient” entrenched in both medicine and law in India ― an image that undermines agency, diminishes self-respect, and sustains a culture of disrespect. Chapters of the book unpacks the intersections of power, social categories, and patienthood, exposing how marginalized communities face everyday indignities in healthcare and law. It explores law and medicine’s role in maintaining presumed 'passive patient' archetype, especially through legal judgements and healthcare encounters. This book advocates for reimagining patienthood as centered on self-respect, recognition, and agency, arguing that the “passive patient” is not an isolated phenomenon but an outcome of broader, oppressive structures.

Contributing to robust debates in medical sociology, bioethics, and social justice, this book is essential reading for those interested in the intersections of these fields, along with applied ethics, health services research, and law.

This book is freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

About the Author

Supriya Subramani is Lecturer at Sydney Health Ethics, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She explores ethics, embodied emotions, and the politics of knowledge. Employing critical philosophical ethnography and a phenomenological approach, she critically examines structural injustice in health, disrespect and othering, the ethics of belonging, and the intersections of paternalism, respect, and agency.

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