In recent years we have witnessed that projects in abortion and euthanasia have been discussed and debated legislatively in Chile. In 2017, the Law on Termination of Pregnancy in Three Causes was approved, and a draft law on euthanasia and palliative care is currently in Congress. These discussions intersect and converge with a strong social outbreak that cries out for equality, dignity and social justice._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ Although different discourses have taken shape on the national scene, I consider that a relevant one is health discourse, shaped as a knowledge / power discourse permeating health practices and relationships._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ The research answers the question: From a gender perspective, what are the health discourses, of the staff of the gynecology and obstetrics units, ethics and palliative care committee, of the Santiago de Chile health system, in the life debate and death associated with abortion and euthanasia in Chile?_x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ I investigated the phenomena of abortion and euthanasia in an integrated way, to unveil the main debates about life and death, which had to do with constructions of dignity, of the human, autonomy, suffering and pain, and transversely Body building._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ From feminist and critical epistemologies, which position me around my life story, I adopted a qualitative strategy of mixed character (inductive and abductive), where through in-depth interviews (conducted at the beginning of 2017), to key informants ( 4 interviews) and to health professionals (26 interviews), from a private religious clinic, a private non-religious clinic, and a hospital, produced speeches through content analysis techniques and critical discourse analysis._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ Some of the main results have to do with the fact that although the professionals were dichotomously positioned around abortion and euthanasia, under two arguments: the sacredness of life (mainly by professionals of the religious clinic) and autonomy of the bodies (coming mostly from the non-religious clinic), upon entering the analysis a denser argumentative plot emerged, where I appreciated a political use of the positions, giving rise to ways of understanding society, its ethics, relationships of power, as well as the conceptions of life and death permeated by a western, patriarchal, neoliberal and capitalist mantle._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ I verified different ways of understanding autonomy: an autonomy with liberal conceptions (linked to an ethic of justice and a hegemonic masculinity) and visions connected to its relational character (associating it with a care ethic and a hegemonic femininity). In this regard, I consider the integration of both autonomies necessary to build an understanding of the user as a political actor, recognizing their particular desires, their rights, as well as their ties and affections._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ Regarding the debates of life and death, we saw that there were different conceptions of life. From some positions, biological life was resorted to, while from others there was a habitable life (recognizing rights, contexts and life projects)._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ I also noted the dichotomy of life in general and death, to the extent that they were always conceived as separate, and always the first better than the second, making invisible that death is part of life. That, unveiled death constructions present in the West, associated with lonely and distressing deaths. What is not talked about but that is the only certainty of our existence.
| Date of Award | 9 Sept 2020 |
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| Original language | Spanish |
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| Supervisor | Enrico Mora (Director) |
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