Book Review: Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry
| Author | Hazel Croall |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466390000900109 |
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
BOOK REVIEWS
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courts have shown themselves much more ready to intervene to protect women from
their own ‘irrational’ decisions than men, particularly where a foetus is involved. As
long as ideas of normal and healthy are coloured by misconceptions of sexuality,
gender and cultural difference, attempts to meet the needs of psychiatric patients will
be thwarted.
Though each chapter is interesting in itself, some chapters offer particularly inter-
esting perspectives and new problems for analysis. Marie Fox examines the issue of
clinical research from which women have been excluded for reasons of their repro-
ductive health, and points out that the male body has thus been used as a reference
for clinical judgements relating to both men and women. Fox offers a thorough and
informative review of recent feminist critiques of science as an illustration of the
potential harm to women of simply involving more women in clinical trials. She
pleads for a feminist perspective and feminist ethics to take on board the issue of
animals who, along with women and minorities, have been subject to objectification
and abuse. For Fox, ‘a feminist science’ would encompass complementary medicine
and more intuitive, personalised health care practices.
Certain chapters raise issues and set a feminist agenda rather than resolving issues
themselves. Noel Whitty argues that resource allocation has been neglected by femin-
ists. The deep inequalities in access to health care currently evident may widen still
further in the near future. This area thus needs a feminist critique to transform notions
of health care and of justice. The chapter by Thérese Murphy also raises questions and
plays an agenda setting role. She relates theories about dialogue and communication
to the issue of confidentiality between the doctor and patient. Though this is a very
interesting chapter perhaps a lack of space prevented Murphy from fully relating her
use of theory to the health care context. Murphy’s chapter also offers an analysis of
the more theoretical aspects of feminist perspectives. In a similar vein, Michael
Thomson argues that the definition of the...
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