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Social Norms and the Right to Health

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Sociocultural Otherness and Minority Justice: A Study on China

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 88))

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Abstract

International attention on contemporary Chinese issues tends to focus on those that are politics-related, for instance free speech and corruption. While they are important and worthy of continuous examination, they are also vast topics that are far away from the everyday living of ordinary people in a nondemocratic state, in which constructive participation in politics is irrelevant to the vast majority, and rightly or wrongly, nothing political can compete with the importance of everyday living—in good health. Chap. 2 examines two health issues – mental illnesses, and HIV/AIDS – for their status as the two leading stigmatised health conditions in China today and their unique ability to demonstrate what it means to be ‘the other’ purely due to one’s state of health, to reveal how health-related stigmatisation works through association with morality and fear, and how it interacts with a complex web of structural determinants.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is essential to note that in the vast majority (and probably all) of the known internet addiction cases in which ECT is involved as part of the treatment, it has been conducted with the parents’ or the guardians’ full consent. This point will be further explored later.

  2. 2.

    Available at http://tv.cntv.cn/video/C10435/5300e9841e654ed85d4c4887d0220369. According to state media reports, such treatments have also been used on the elderly who are mentally ill, same-sex attracted people, rebellious children, and even pregnant women.

  3. 3.

    See the case of WU Chunxia of Zhoukou, Henan Province: http://www.chinanews.com/sh/2014/05-21/6197557.shtml.

  4. 4.

    While the first Action Plan (2001–2005) mentioned only migrant workers returning from work from abroad. Internal migrants were not mentioned.

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  1. Qingdao Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao, China

    Hanna H. Wei

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Wei, H.H. (2022). Social Norms and the Right to Health. In: Sociocultural Otherness and Minority Justice: A Study on China. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 88. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9752-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9752-4_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-9751-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-9752-4

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