Knowledge, Practice, and Power: Court‐Ordered Cesarean Sections

Abstract

Medical specialists command particular respect in this society, and the application of their specialized knowledge carries considerable weight. In obstetrics, expert knowledge is constituted as authoritative through a complex process in which actual social relations are obscured or misrecognized by the actors. When obstetric advice is actively rejected, birthing becomes an arena of struggle and these relations become more visible. Refusal by a woman to undergo cesarean section involves a challenge to medical authority, a challenge that may be overruled by legal orders supporting the practice of medicine and further legitimating medical knowledge. We review nine cases of court‐ordered cesarean section to illustrate how medical power and privilege are maintained in cases of individual resistance.