Medicine and Violence Against Women

Wilkerson's piece "Her own body her own worst enemy: The medicalization of violence against women," left the class discussion in a large amount of debate. I had a lot of trouble wrapping my thoughts around this class discussion and the reading itself. There were a large amount of valid arguments brought up during this class, but I continued to have trouble acknowledging the legitimacy of some of the arguments. We found ourselves arguing mostly in terms of the issue of doctors lack of requirement to report domestic violence. I think that the answer to this should be clear, and I do not think that this was expressed in class as well as it could have been. I believe that in the case of clear domestic violence, it should be the case that the woman is immediately taken to the psych ward, and that the situation should be further investigated. There are obviously going to be cases that are a bit more grey than they straight black or white issues of domestic violence. 

What bothers me about this issue, is that if it were the case of other violence issues, it would be a given answer. In addition, I cannot help but think of other issues of hospital visits. There are many instances where a patient visits the hospital for help, and it involves alcohol. In this case, it is obvious that the hospital will immediately send the patient to get help, in terms of a drinking problem, or a violence problem. In addition, there are times when someone could be injured, and the one who injured them is found out to be drunk. These cases are sent to other levels of authority as well. I believe that cases of domestic violence should be treated just as these cases. While doctors do not necessarily have the knowledge to diagnose someone with an issue such as this, it should be the case that they overreact, just as they often do to a broken arm, or leg. Overreacting could save the future of a person, man or woman, and it could be that extra step that would lead to the end of domestic violence in that particular household, etc.