The On The Origin Of Inequality

Marxist theory believes that there is a relationship between health and illness and capitalist social organisation. The main focus is on how the definition and treatment of health and illness are influenced by the nature of economic activity in a capitalist society. Marxist believe that the health service exists for two reasons, they believe it has a genuine role in that it persuades a large number of the population that capitalism ‘cares’ for them (Moore, 2008 p.263).

This can be defined as heath care that is received while pregnant, and can be seen through a few of the many ways to obtain care: going for regular monthly checkups, taking prenatal vitamins, eating properly and healthily to obtain the nutrients needed (U.S Women’s Health Department, 2012). A healthy pregnancy increases the chances for a healthy newborn, and according to the U.S Women’s Health Department (2012), “babies of mothers who do not get prenatal care are three times more likely to have a low birth weight and five times more likely to die than those born to mothers who do get care”. When taking care of the body and focusing on prenatal care, doctors are able to catch health problems in the baby earlier and health problems in the mother that can later affect the baby, and through proper prenatal care, it allows these issues to be treated early (U.S Women’s Health Department, 2012). In previous years and centuries, because prenatal care was not widely recognized, and future mothers did not recognize the importance of proper care of the fetus, the number of newborns born with birth defects or irregular vital signs was significantly higher than in today’s

In the philosophical fiction, “A Discourse on Inequality,” John Rousseau, in the state of nature, distinguishes man from animals with the concepts of man possessing freewill and man’s sense of unrealized perfectibility. Furthermore, he emphasizes throughout the first discourse that man, in the state of nature, does not obtain knowledge that surpasses that of animals. Man’s free will is a prerequisite for a further gain in knowledge to be acquired; also, the sense of perfectibility man is naturally derived with allows man to change with time. I argue that free will is a necessary and crucial factor for man to leave the state of nature. Because of free will, man retains the capability to acquire and develop knowledge. Moreover, knowledge

Rousseau maintained that compassion is required for mutual preservation; concern for each other is our ultimate security. But a materialistic society has desensitised us, stifling our compassionate nature.7

In lieu of this inadequate care, many illnesses that could be easily eliminated go untreated. This argument is represented in the following quote from Kidders book, “A very small elderly looking women, her body bent at the waist, at a right angle. Long before farmer met her, tuberculosis of the spine had devoured pieces of her backbone-a case of Potts disease, easily cured but it had gone untreated and was “burnt out” (Kidder26). This is an example of the conditions of the health care in Haiti and other similar countries. This shows the reader that there are many things happening to these poor people that could easily be prevented with the right health care. Yet, because they are

In the world that we live in today, many people would find it difficult to imagine living in a world where medicine and treatment are not readily available. The replacement of religious explanations to medical and scientific explanations has become a means of social control. If a person is in pain, they can easily set up an appointment with a doctor and receive some sort of medical diagnosis. However, there are certain instances where a problem has not been medicalized, or recognized as a medical problem, and their issue will be dismissed completely. The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest delves into the idea of medicalization and how it can be used for the good, or for the bad, in terms of the “sick role.” Medicalization in the

The philosophy relayed by the book’s author consistently leads back to the moral question that must be asked in the initial design of the healthcare system. That determination has to do as to whether the government has a duty to act when there are those within their own country do not have equitable access to hospitals and doctors for the treatment of their conditions.14

Illich, a non-conformist social critic of the institutionalization and bureaucratization of various areas of life previously regarded as personal, believed that the medical institution was intended to produce good but has instead damaged our humanness with several negative consequences. In his argument against the increasingly prominent heteronomous mode of production in the medical realm, he speaks of counterproductivity to criticize the heteronomous (the external aids) paralyzing the autonomous (us, the people) and our ability to do anything for ourselves. He argues that beyond a critical threshold, there are tipping points that produce the opposite of what they were intended to produce lead to terrible results.

Access to care can be defined as people’s ability to obtain healthcare when needed. It may also mean the availability of resources of care for people. Access is one of the main elements of health status. In preindustrial America, people were dealing with most problems of illness within their family, neighbors, and community. They had learned to rely on themselves in dealing with their own needs. Women were a big part of medicine of the domestic household. Mothers and wives were expected to have skills of family care and that was part of their responsibility. The demand for medical services was low. Occasionally, families had physicians come to their homes for treatments. Lay healers, bonesetters, and botanic practitioners were common. They used folk remedies that had passed down through generations. Families had mastered such a wide range of skills and self-reliance that there

This is connected with the fact that the benefits to be gained are incredibly marginal (Bowden, 1988). One might be lead to believe that giving treatment to the neonate would increase the parents’ happiness. This may not always be the case. Treating the neonate may give the parents a financial and emotional burden. The parents may not be able to afford the cost of the medical treatment that is necessary to keep the newborn alive. It will also create emotional stress on the family. The overall happiness on the family may be decreased since the chance of divorce, somatic complaints, stress, and mental disorders are increased in this situation (Bowden, 1988). Of course, there are many arguments against this reasoning of effects on the parents. Some argue that caring for the newborn will be very rewarding and will give the family a sense of fulfillment in their lives.

According to Rousseau 's “Discourse on Inequality”, there are four stages to the social evolution in humans; it 's natural state, family, nation, and civil society. There are two types of inequalities, natural (or physical) and moral. Natural inequality stems from differences in age, health, or other physical characteristics. Moral inequality is established by convention or consent of men. One of the first and most important questions Rousseau asks is "For how is it possible to know the source of the inequality among men, without knowing men themselves?” (Rousseau, Preface) To answer this question, man cannot be considered as he is now, deformed by society, but as he was in nature. The problem is that as knowledge increases man’s ignorance. This essay, using Rousseau’s “Discourse on Inequality” as a backbone will try and identify the origins of inequality within race, class, gender and sexuality, and establish how these inequalities were brought out and maintained.

The critique of medicalisation first arose from the Marxist perspective. Which is characterised by its criticism of social structures and the social role of powerful, upper-class occupational groups, such as medical professionals. Advocates of this view, argue that medicine has begun to take on the role of social regulation as more aspects of life are becoming ‘medicalised’ (Lupton, 1997). Marxists suggests that medicalisation undermines people’s health and autonomy, by enabling an authoritative group, that is the medical profession, to dictate how they should act (Illich, 1997). Marxist generally take a negative view of physicians, seeing them as attempting to enhance their own position. A vociferous critique of medicalisation, Evan Willis, perceived the dominance of doctors at three levels. Firstly, physician’s exercise autonomy over their work, rarely subject to

Rousseau’s state of nature differs greatly from Locke’s. The human in Rousseau’s state of nature exists purely as an instinctual and solitary creature, not as a Lockean rational individual. Accordingly, Rousseau’s human has very few needs, and besides sex, is able to satisfy them all independently. This human does not contemplate appropriating property, and certainly does not deliberate rationally as to the best method for securing it. For Rousseau, this simplicity characterizes the human as perfectly free, and because it does not socialize with others, it does not have any notion of inequality; thus, all humans are perfectly equal in the state of nature. Nonetheless, Rousseau accounts for humanity’s contemporary condition in civil society speculating that a series of coincidences and discoveries, such as the development of the family and the advent of agriculture, gradually propelled the human away from a solitary, instinctual life towards a social and rationally contemplative

In early years of nursing only the wealthy people could afford healthcare; however, most people who practiced medicine had little to no education and had to learn while on the job. Back then they had no children hospitals. The first one was in 1855. As a nurse, children should be the first priority while doing this job. The death rate in children’s hospitals used to be so high that when a child got a disease they could not be admitted. They were trying to decrease the death rate. According to

On the other hand, Rousseau is of the idea that human beings are good in nature but they are latter to be vitiated by the political societies which are not part of the man’s natural state. Men need to live in collaboration and help each other to face life challenges. However, with the establishment of political and social institutions, men begin to experience inequalities as a result of greed. Rousseau claims that, in man’s natural state, they only strive for the basic needs and once those needs are satisfied they are contented in that state (Hobbes & Malcolm, 2012). Additionally, Rousseau points out that after the inception of social and political institutions, humans began to be self-centered