Biomedicine and Technocratic Power

Viewing medicine through a Foucauldian perspective is to be less concerned with social consequences that may result from specific biomedical achievements and more aware of the role that the medical technocrat plays in directing social and government policy in matters that affect the individual's general life chances.

Abstract

Biomedicine's technological achievements also provide for the\nexpansion of medicine's role as an agent of social regulation. We are\nbecoming increasingly accepting of an ethic of human accounting; that is, of\naccepting prescriptive standards about how people ought to behave and\nappear...In consequence, as everyday life becomes more closely calibrated by\ntechnically defined standards, we may become less tolerant of those who\ndeviate from the norm or who violate standards.