Rosengarten, Marsha and Michael, Mike. 2009. Rethinking the bioethical enactment of drugged bodies: On the paradoxes of using anti-HIV drug therapy as a technology for prevention (PrEP). Science as Culture, 18(2), pp. 183-199. ISSN 0950-5431 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

In this paper we examine the work of bioethics in the enactment of medically drugged bodies by focusing on the development of an oral pre-exposure chemo (drug) prophylaxis for preventing HIV, called PrEP. Our aim is to show how the operationalisation of bioethics to mediate drug development obscures a more complex and relational dynamic out of which emerge the qualities and, indeed, problematics of bodies incorporated into PrEP. Our analysis is drawn from a small body of literature from trial affected communities, advocacy groups, researchers and trial sponsors. In particular, we focus on bioethical questions about how best to protect the interests of participants in ‘offshore’ randomised clinical trials. We argue that the predominant bioethical frame insufficiently addresses the challenges posed by PrEP. By rendering PrEP a singular thing that differs across contexts, more fruitful alternative conceptions are obscured. Specifically, we argue that PrEP trials be conceived as ‘ontologically multiple’ - emerging out of divergent assemblages of heterogeneous entities, including material and cultural differences in and across context-specific bodies. On the basis of this alternative account of PrEP, we propose that the bioethical work of pharmaceutical development can become more inclusive.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431003768346
Keywords:	HIV, bioethics, drugs, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), clinical trials, multiple ontologies.
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Sociology > Centre for Study of Invention and Social Process (CSISP) [2003-2015]
Dates:	Date Event 2009 Published
Item ID:	7061
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2012 09:12
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2017 12:26
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/7061

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• Rethinking the bioethical enactment of drugged bodies: On the paradoxes of using anti-HIV drug therapy as a technology for prevention (PrEP). (deposited 19 Jun 2012 09:12) [Currently Displayed]

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