{"title":"Concealed coexistence: Reproductive choice and coercion in Timor-Leste","authors":"Laura Burke","doi":"10.1111/maq.70056","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Choice is a central concept in reproductive rights. However, a discourse of choice in reproductive health can also mask precisely the act it aims to protect against: coercion. Whilst choice has been explored extensively in studies of reproductive rights and justice, understandings of coercion are fragmented and under-theorized. This article explores the relationship between coercion and choice, not as a binary but as a coexistence in which they overlay and conceal one another. Drawing on ethnographic research amongst health professionals during family planning training in Timor-Leste, this article shows how a discourse of choice obscures coercive structures and practices, whilst coercive approaches can paradoxically reveal hidden choices. I argue that this coexistence, characterized by concealment, leads to iatrogenesis—medical harm with immediate and lingering effects. By recognizing the coexistence of choice and coercion, and revealing their concealment of one another, we might limit iatrogenesis and enable greater reproductive freedom.</p>","PeriodicalId":47649,"journal":{"name":"Medical Anthropology Quarterly","volume":"40 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2026-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/maq.70056","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Medical Anthropology Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maq.70056","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/1/24 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Choice is a central concept in reproductive rights. However, a discourse of choice in reproductive health can also mask precisely the act it aims to protect against: coercion. Whilst choice has been explored extensively in studies of reproductive rights and justice, understandings of coercion are fragmented and under-theorized. This article explores the relationship between coercion and choice, not as a binary but as a coexistence in which they overlay and conceal one another. Drawing on ethnographic research amongst health professionals during family planning training in Timor-Leste, this article shows how a discourse of choice obscures coercive structures and practices, whilst coercive approaches can paradoxically reveal hidden choices. I argue that this coexistence, characterized by concealment, leads to iatrogenesis—medical harm with immediate and lingering effects. By recognizing the coexistence of choice and coercion, and revealing their concealment of one another, we might limit iatrogenesis and enable greater reproductive freedom.
期刊介绍：
Medical Anthropology Quarterly: International Journal for the Analysis of Health publishes research and theory in the field of medical anthropology. This broad field views all inquiries into health and disease in human individuals and populations from the holistic and cross-cultural perspective distinctive of anthropology as a discipline -- that is, with an awareness of species" biological, cultural, linguistic, and historical uniformity and variation. It encompasses studies of ethnomedicine, epidemiology, maternal and child health, population, nutrition, human development in relation to health and disease, health-care providers and services, public health, health policy, and the language and speech of health and health care.
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