Consultant: Our personalities are not the same.
Woman: You should still tell us.
Consultant: Doctors can’t tell you what to do in these circumstances.
Woman: I think you should.
The neutral attitude can sometimes be interpreted as the practitioner’s
disengagement from the clinical relationship, thus causing the women to
feel abandoned.29
More rarely, practitioners will accept delegation of the decision
following an explicit request from women who do not wish to engage in an
expert approach and who wish to leave it up to professionals. The
asymmetry is chosen and accepted with due regard for the protagonists.
In France for example, with a certain amount of assurance, a woman of
African origin interrupts the obstetrician’s explanations by saying:
“Doctor, it’s you who decides, because we don’t know anything
about all this! ” The request is understood and the practitioner
accepts the delegation. He questions the couple on several occasions so
as to adapt his advice to suit their expectations, understands that for
religious reasons abortion is not an option, and to the satisfaction of
the couple, concludes: “In my opinion no sample should be taken.
You say I am the doctor and that I must advise you. That is my
advice. ” (Consultant, France).
Although certain English practitioners sometimes accept to give an
opinion, this does not mean that the neutrality and objectiveness,
characteristic of the medico-scientific expertise, are set aside. Each
opinion is accompanied by a technical argument to such an extent that
the frames of expertise and medical authority are very much entwined.
For example, during the ultrasound examination preceding a planned CVS,
and when the development of the foetus seems to be normal, the woman is
submerged by doubt: