Medicine as a Form of Social Control Rating Options

[Comptine]

I'm took a sociology class on health care (basically, a class that talked about how bad the US health care system was and how most doctors aren't very good people)

Many sociologists believe medicine has replaced religion and law as the form of social control. Doctors have the power to decide/define who is healthy and who is ill. They define who has bad habits and who has good habits. Essentially, they get to decide what is healthy and what is deviant in terms of health.

Do you agree? Medicine is just another way for society to control people? Should there be limits? Or maybe the control is a good thing? It helps people make the right decisions and have good habits.

Examples of medicine as social control:
-Studies have shown that health professionals have a selective process for resuscitating ER patients. That is, people they deem worthy are more likely to get the emergency help they need in a timely matter. They resuscitate those they think are more morally upstanding/worthy. So drug addicts, drunk drivers, and the elderly, might not get as persistent resuscitation efforts as a housewife, young college students.

-Doctors can force women into prenatal care.