Saving Lives or Saving Multiple Identities?: The Double Dynamic of Resuscitation Scripts

Abstract

Using the example of resuscitation techniques, I explore how technology helps to mediate the attribution and acquisition of identities. I argue that certain identities are pre-written in resuscitation scripts. If we follow the person through the resuscitation process, we see a double identity transformation. The resuscitation technology facilitates certain medical identities, and renders others irrelevant. When the outcome of the resuscitative attempt is known, this process is reversed, and some previously irrelevant attempt are now reinstated. Some identities can also be lost for ever, and new identities added to the multiple configuration. I examine the implications of this analysis of the stabilization of technology.