Link for order! FULLY OPEN ACCESS
Link for order! FULLY OPEN ACCESS
Endorsement/Reflections
In India, poor people and marginalised communities are often treated in an abominable way. They are ignored, slighted, blamed, cheated, humiliated – the list is not difficult to extend. This is also true to a varying extent around the world, but India is quite extreme when it comes to what Supriya Subramani aptly calls “everyday indignities”. One reason for this is the pervasive influence of the caste system, a uniquely oppressive structure of graded inequality.
There is a misconception among the privileged that the victims are used to being treated that way and take it in their stride. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people aspire to some dignity, and every act of disrespect adds to the deep well of anger among marginalised groups.
Everyday indignities abound in all spheres of Indian life, but they are especially pernicious in the field of healthcare. As eminent economist Kenneth Arrow explained long ago, the relation between doctor (or nurse) and patient is based on trust. Disrespect on the part of the doctor or nurse can easily destroy this trust. As Subramani writes, it can even happen that “a Dalit man refuses treatment because of the humiliation he anticipates at a government clinic” – I have heard of specific examples of this myself. And this breach of trust is just one aspect of the debilitating effects of disrespect in a healthcare system based on the “passive patient” culture.
Supriya Subramani’s book is a pioneering attempt to explore this dark side of Indian healthcare. The study is enriched by her own experience of everyday indignities from childhood onwards. The book will be of much interest to privileged and underprivileged readers alike. For those who have also been at the receiving end of everyday indignities, it will be a source of strength and inspiration. If you come from the other end, this book will help you to open your eyes to patterns of disrespect that are too often taken for granted.
-Jean Drèze, Development Economist and Social Scientist
Subramani, Supriya. Practising Reflexivity. Under contract with Routledge.
Subramani, Supriya. (2025). Cultivating Trust: Ethical Imperatives to Dismantle Institutional Racism in Healthcare. Medical Jouranl of Australia.https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.52675
Subramani, Supriya. (2025). Practising reflexivity: Ethico-epistemological, political project? Methodological Innovations. https://doi.org/10.1177/20597991251316584
Subramani, Supriya. (2024). Othering and Ethics of Belonging in Migrants' Healthcare Experiences. Sociology of Health and Illness. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13829
Subramani, Supriya, Vinay, Rasita, Hefti, Michaela, Marz, Julian, Biller-Andorno, Nikola. (2023). Ethical issues in breastfeeding and lactation interventions: a scoping review. Journal of Human Lactation. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F08903344231215073
Subramani, Supriya. (2023). Beyond Public Health and Private Choice: Breastfeeding, Embodiment and Public Health Ethics, Asian Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-023-00259-0.
Subramani Supriya. (2023). Emotions and affects: the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle of understanding risk attitudes in medical decision-making. Journal of Medical Ethics Published Online First: 16 August 2023. doi: 10.1136/jme-2023-109374. Submitted version here.
Loughlin, M, Dolezal, L, Hutchinson, P, Subramani, S, Milani, R, Lafarge, C. (2022) Philosophy and the clinic: stigma, respect and shame. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.; 1- 6. doi:10.1111/jep.13755
Ashu, J.T., Mwangi, J., Subramani, S., Kaseje D., Ashuntantang G., Luyckx V. (2022). Challenges to the right to health in sub-Saharan Africa: reflections on inequities in access to dialysis for patients with end-stage kidney failure. International Journal for Equity in Health 21, 126. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01715-3
Subramani, S., Biller-Andorno, N. Revisiting respect for persons: conceptual analysis and implications for clinical practice. Medicine Health Care and Philosophy. 25, 351–360 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-022-10079-y
Onarheim K, Ingleby D, Subramani S, Miljeteig I. (2021) Adopting an ethical approach to migration health policy, practice and research. BMJ Global Health;6:e006425. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006425
Paramasivan S, Davies P, Richards A, Wade J, Rooshenas L, Mills N, Realpe A, Raj J, Subramani S, Ives J, Huxtable R, Blazeby J and Donovan J. (2021). What empirical research has been undertaken on the ethics of clinical research in India? A systematic scoping review and narrative synthesis to map the evidence. BMJ Global Health. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004729
Subramani, Supriya. (2020). Moral Habitus: An approach to understanding embedded disrespectful practices, Developing World Bioethics. 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12301
Subramani, Supriya. (2020). The Social Construction of Incompetency: Moving Beyond Embedded Paternalism Toward the Practice of Respect. Health Care Analysis. 28, 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-020-00395-w
Subramani, Supriya. (2019). The rhetoric of 'passive patient' in the Indian medical negligence cases. Asian Bioethics Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-019-00106-1
Subramani, Supriya. (2019). The uninformed spouse: Balancing confidentiality and other professional obligations. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 3 (NS), p. 211-215. https://ijme.in/articles/the-uninformed-spouse-balancing-confidentiality-and-other-professional-obligations/?galley=html
Subramani, Supriya. (2019). Practising reflexivity: Ethics, methodology and theory construction. Methodological Innovations. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059799119863276 | PDF
Subramani, Supriya. (2018). The moral significance of capturing micro-inequities in hospital settings. Social Science & Medicine, 209, 136-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.05.036
Subramani, Supriya. (2017). Patient autonomy within real or valid consent: Samira Kohli’s case. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 2(3), 184-9. https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2017.038 | PDF
When hospitals become hostile: The importance of cultivating trust and dignity within our healthcare systems. ABC Religion and Ethics
Interviewed in 'Health workers condemn video showing NSW Health nurses bragging about killing Israeli patients'. ABC News.
Blog, Feb 1st 2022| Poverty-induced stigma, shame and humiliation in healthcare settings
Blog, April 14th 2020| Salience of effective public communication and transparency during COVID-19
Subramani, S. 2014. | Am I ‘The Man’ On The Court. TARSHI (Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues). http://www.tarshi.net/inplainspeak/i-column-am-i-the-man-on-the-court/
Politics and Possibilities of Moral Cosmopolitanisms. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/j2mhr_v1/
Podcast
Guest on 'How hate speech in healthcare tears at something sacred in our common life' on ABC Radio National The Minefield.
I was featured on ABC Radio National and Philosopher's Zone podcast titled 'Health care ethics: otherness and belonging'
Concept: Art, Episode 1 with Pat McConville. March 23 2024
‘On Situated knowledge, standpoint theory and interdisciplinary exploration’ on Undisciplinary with Christopher Meyes and Jane Williams.
Sydney Health Ethics Podcast on “Revisiting Respect for Persons: Conceptual Analysis and Implications for Clinical Practice”, Sept 7 2023
Podcast host and producer: Being Diagnosed with COVID-19: Reflecting on the experience with Dr. Usha Sriram. Oct 23 2020. https://fmesinstitute.org/blog-18-heal-institute-ijme-covid-19-insights-podcast-october- 2020/#.X7UQ8C2ZNQI
Podcast host and producer: Ethics in Practice with Dr. Usha Sriram. Oct 22, 2020. https://fmesinstitute.org/blog-17-heal-institute-ijme-covid-19-insights-podcast-october-2020/#.X7UQny2ZNQI
Podcast host and producer: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Covid-19 with Valerie Luyckx, Aug 29 2020. https://fmesinstitute.org/non-communicable-diseases-ncds-and-covid-19/