ABSTRACT
This chapter takes up the concept of production, principally in relation to human reproduction to explore the shifting boundaries between the hitherto curative practices of medicine and the present-day trend for enhancement of life and self-identity through medicine. It traces the co-constituted conceptual heritages of production and consumption from Karl Marx to the present day, including how they have been taken up in theories on medicalization and biomedicalization. Through a case study of childbirth, and planned caesarean birth in particular, the enduring value of the production concept is highlighted wherever capitalism is the key organizing principle of society. Through Martins analysis of the metaphors of production that inform medical descriptions of female bodies, she shows that medicine does not objectively describe scientific facts; it produces them. As the forces of transnational capitalism continue to redefine production and consumption in increasingly complex ways, the chapter has centred on women's reproductive health, with its inherent contradictions in health gains and health inequalities.
