The body in medical tourism : under and beyond the gazes

Abstract

Medical tourism, the practice of travelling across international borders to obtain medical services,has gained new sociological significance given the increasing globalization of healthcare facilitated by technological advancements in medicine, communications and transport. This paper focuses on the human body and seeks to explore its construction and experience. First, in exploring the construction of the body, it examines how the body is presented under various gazes such as medical gaze, tourist gaze, and "medical tourist" gaze (which this paper proposes) in medical tourism. The second finds its place in how medical tourists make sense and give meaning to their experience. Finally, though theoretically inclined to the sociology of tourism, this paper attempts to draw links between the construction and the experience of the body in medical tourism and in doing so, synthesize concepts from the sociology of medicine and body.