Medicalization: Current concept and future directions in a Bionic Society

TLDR

Medicalization, a process extending medical scrutiny beyond illness, has evolved from its theoretical roots to encompass drivers such as consumer demand, biotechnology, and managed care, and has spurred related concepts like pharmaceuticalization, genetization, and biomedicalization, while framing human enhancement as the use of biomedical technology to boost performance in a growing bionic society. The authors propose that these emerging concepts can aid in analyzing human enhancement.

Abstract

The article illustrates the main features of the concept of medicalization, starting from its theoretical roots. Although it is the process of extending the medical gaze on human conditions, it appears that medicalization cannot be strictly connected to medical imperialism anymore. Other "engines" of medicalization are influential: consumers, biotechnology and managed care. The growth of research and theoretical reflections on medicalization has led to the proposal of other parallel concepts like pharmaceuticalization, genetization and biomedicalization. These new theoretical tools could be useful in the analysis of human enhancement. Human enhancement can be considered as the use of biomedical technology to improve performance on a human being who is not in need of a cure: a practice that is increasingly spreading in what might be defined as a "bionic society".