“One powerful element working against childbirth reform is the health industry, currently the fastest growing in the United States with profits accounting for more than ten percent of the GNP. Manufacturers have a vested interest in birth practices that require an array of costly machinery, and connections between the industry and the profession, like those between the military and manufactures of weaponry, have produced a formidable alliance with the power to influence national policies. The partnership is further supported by a medical insurance system that rewards the use of costly technology and surgical interventions and penalizes those who choose more conservative methods. Government becomes part of the alliance when, bypassing the public, it relies solely on the advice and information from the physicians who stand to benefit economically and professionally from its decisions.” ~ From “Reclaiming Birth” by Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, p. 191 The book was published in 1984. It’s hair-rising to think that thirty years later, this quote is as actual as ever.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:38:00 +0000
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