The Importance of Mental Health and Gender in Taiwan

Transcription

1 Globalization on Mental Health in a Gender Perspective Chueh Chang 張 玨 Department of Health Policy and Management Researcher, Women s Research Program National Taiwan University Mental health is not simply the absence of detectable mental disease but a state of well-being. Mental, social, and behavioral health problems are connected with the recent wave of global changes. Social pathologies (i.e. substance abuse, violence, abuses of women and children), health problems (i.e. heart disease, stress, and depression to changes in social behavior), and exacerbating conditions (i.e. high unemployment, low income, limited education, stressful work conditions, gender discrimination) are influenced by the powerful global transformations of our era. In Taiwan, women are often the discriminated gender in relation to the theme of Mental Health. Thus, mental health based on a gender perspective should be considered most significant. Women are discriminated in the formation of Health Policy with extremely limited participation on its configuration in Taiwan. Women's roles as a carer, an initiator, or an educator should be recognized. Therefore, due to the unjust and unnatural social order, women must be induced by external forces accompanied by an altered consciousness and awareness in order to achieve the goal of mental health. Gender mainstreaming is a global issue that draws attention to mental health. The techniques and sexuality/gender politics of Taiwan's ob-gyns in the post-war period Daiwie Fu 傅 大 為

2 Institute of History, National Tsing-Hua University The development of special techniques in operations and other related women complains counts as one major factor in elevating the status and popularity of Taiwan's post-war obstetrics & gynaecology. On the other hand, this technical development certainly was not only an innocent or objective scientific development. It has predicated upon Taiwan's historical conditions of women's body: only by exploiting and to the extent of almost abusing these conditions, can the techniques of Taiwan's ob-gyns be developed and gain their popularity. Lights can also be shed on the historical origins of those often abusive and overused techniques in nowadays Taiwan, such as the notorious C/S operation. Gender and the Profession of Radiology in Taiwan Ling-fang Cheng, 成 令 方 Graduate Institute of Gender Studies, Kaohsiung Medical University Feminists, though studying gender and technology from various perspectives and on many different issues, do share a common goal, that is, to expect for a democratic and gender-unbiased technical work and for the development of a humane technology so that a better world can be built in the future. Many researches have focuses on women at the receiving end of technology such as the use of the commodities it produced, however, not many on professional women whose expertise is to teach the know-how knowledge and work with the technology, and whose key skills and key jobs could influence the radiology community and make it gender less biased. The professional women and technology, in my view, is the most under-researched area in gender and technology.

3 The paper is to focus on how female radiologists in the top medical college and hospital in Taiwan worked with radiology, the how the development of radiology had the impact on the professional community. In addition, I would also argue that their effort over the last four decades has made some difference to the community of medical radiology and to our understanding of gender and technology. In order to show the trajectory of radiology and how it is gendered, the paper is to devote discussion to it historical and sociological contexts. The Disappearance of Infertile Men? ICSI and Gender Politics Chia-ling Wu 吳 嘉 苓 Department of Sociology National Taiwan University The introduction of ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) since early 1990s has dramatically transformed both the male infertility research and treatments. With ICSI, the direct injection of sperm into egg in the laboratory, low sperm count and poor sperm motility, the dominant male infertility causes, were no longer obstacles to conception in the medical setting. Scientists and doctors claim that with ICSI, 90% of male infertility problems are solved. The announcement that there were almost no infertile men reflects the triumph of the technology celebrated in the medical community. This paper investigates the neglected social consequences of ICSI. First, our analysis of medical research finds the decline of sperm studies after the emergence of ICSI. The research that aims to improve the quality of unhealthy sperm or failed insemination is seen clinically unimportant, since technicians of ICSI could make an embryo out of one sperm. The male infertility drug to improve sperm quality remains underdeveloped. Instead, how to improve the quality of egg becomes one of the most heated research topics. The shift of research agenda implies that, as long as fertilization is achieved, the distinction between natural and in vitro insemination is not considered an

4 important issue, and the reduction of medical intervention into women s bodies is not regarded as a worthwhile research agenda. Second, the fieldwork we conducted in Taiwan demonstrates that ICSI has replaced artificial insemination (AI) as the primarily suggested treatment for male infertility. Compared to AI, ICSI requires in vitro fertilization and thus women of infertile partners have to undergo more intrusive medical intervention for the process of egg removing. With ICSI s one-sperm-is-adequate claim, the causes for the treatment failures often go to women, even to the originally healthy women of partner of infertile men. Overall, while the fact that men account for half of infertility increase social recognition of men s equal association with conception, ICSI might have further reinforced the concept the women s bodies are the primary site of conception. Infertile men disappear at the cost of the further medicalization of women s bodies. Legal-Institution Human-reproduction Technology and the Parenthood Hwei-syin Chen and Liu, Chung-tung 陳 惠 馨 ; 劉 仲 冬 Law department of Chengchi University; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences NDMC This article presents both law and sociological perspectives on issues surrounding the new development and the use of human reproductive technology, especially on sperm/egg donation and surrogate pregnancy. First of all we will look at the treatment of infertility in terms of the expansion of medical domain. Secondly the impact and consequences of these procedures on law will be scrutinized.. Although the new reproductive techniques have been promoted as for treatment of infertility, nevertheless the success of parenthood still needs to be finished by law institution. Therefore in this paper we will also exam the current

5 law system regulating the ways of achieving parental status in Taiwan. Additionally, other issues such as: legal relations between physician and the person(s) involved, rights and duties on each side; legal responsibilities and management in case of the malformation child, are also included.