Atwood explores the troubling extent to which physicians are involved in people’s lives. Although doctors are supposed to inform their patients in various options they can take in a neutral manner, they often contaminate it with their own personal opinions, or extend ones from the state or larger power.
One example where we see physician-patient relations failing is with Toby’s mother. She “came down with a strange illness”, despite leading a healthy, careful lifestyle. When she tries to address this problem, “no doctor could give her a diagnosis, though many tests were done by the HelthWyzer Corp clinics” (22). Immediately, the reader suspects the HelthWyzer Corp (HWC) of sabotaging Toby’s mother. We are not surprised by this because Crake reveals the past evils that HWC has carried out. Even if we didn’t know about these activities, the fact that she left her health in the hands of one clinic, of one entity is problematic. Leaving decisions about major health issues to one doctor is dangerous. This issue is supported by, Gina Kolata, a medical journalist who wrote “Smart Patient” through The New York Times. In it, she explains how to minimize risk to your health. One significant way is to seek a second opinion concerning a major medical issue or decision. Often, physicians will provide different diagnosis’ and remedies. She examines a case study to support this disparity; in it, there were professionals who examined a blood sample, and 80% of the opinions provided were in disagreement. (You can buy her ebook here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Smart-Patient-Mistakes-Health-ebook/dp/B00MI19CIA) So seeing only one physician really isn’t wise (get it? HelthWyzer). Although seeking a second, even third opinion would be best, it is not easy for many people to do, as it can be costly and time consuming.
Another issue is that some physicians may advocate certain courses of action as the better choice for a patient, even though a patient may feel so otherwise. Roberts focuses on how counselors and doctors disapprove when women/couples decide against selective abortion. They use arguments such as giving better chance of survival to other fertilized eggs, or to not allowing “defective” ones to suffer a life from some disability. Although these are choices that are for a woman to decide on, these procedures are recommend/pushed onto them. Toby’s mother continued getting sick despite taking HelthWyzer supplements- yet the way that Toby described it makes it seem as if her mother was suspicious of the treatment as well.
The physicians are also forced to provide genetic screening, and this pressure is placed onto women as well to be a responsible parent (Roberts). This is an extension of the state looking down on ‘defective’ individuals, and avoiding focusing on social problems. One way we can see this is how everyone in the compounds are worried about getting sick or appearing like a pleeb, although they really have no information about them. Compounders speak about pleebs like they are pariahs- there is nothing actually wrong with them. The disconnect and injustice is just not addressed.
One way the state and physicians impose beliefs onto parents is when sex is assigned to a baby. For many intersex youth, a sex must be given to them within the first day, even though the parents are unsure. Even if it’s not required in that time period, parents are often pressured to assign one to conform to social expectation. Germany recently allowed third gender to appear on birth certificates- this allows time for parents (but mainly the child) to decide what sex they are (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/11/01/242366812/germany-offers-third-gender-option-on-birth-certificates). Australia allows for people to have a gender “X” on passports. These societal expectations are often enforced under the guise of medical science (which Somerville examines).
