TY - JOUR
T1 - PACIENTES-CIDADÃOS-CONSUMIDORES
T2 - A JUDICIALIZAÇÃO DA SAÚDE E A METAMORFOSE DA BIOPOLÍTICA
AU - Biehl, Joao
N1 - Funding Information:
With the legal support of a well-organized patient association in São Paulo (partially funded by the drug manufacturer), the family won a court injunction forcing the Federal Government to begin providing the therapy. Like all parents of MPS children we spoke to, Cleonice suggested that not obtaining this treatment would be unconscionable and tantamount to killing her child. She knew that the federal attorneys would appeal and was ready for the struggle: “Besides entering the Judiciary, we also entered the media.” Cleonice has taken Alexandre’s cause to all possible media outlets, and is also using his condition to educate neighbors, local medical personnel, and officials about the meaning of, in her words, “citizenship” and a “normal life.” “She is a good mother,” says Alexandre, who is thriving in school and seems to be responding positively to treatment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Situated at the meeting points of Law and Medicine, the “judicialization of the right to health” is a contested and hotly debated phenomenon in Brazil. While government officials and some scholars argue that it is driven by urban elites and private interests, and used primarily to access high-cost drugs, empirical evidence refute narratives depicting judicialization as a harbinger of inequity and an antagonist of the public health system. This article's quantitative and ethnographic analysis suggests, instead, that low-income people are working through the available legal mechanisms to claim access to medical technologies and care, turning the Judiciary into a critical site of biopolitics from below. These patient-citizenconsumers are no longer waiting for medical technologies to trickle down, and judicialization has become a key instrument to hold the State accountable for workable infrastructures.
AB - Situated at the meeting points of Law and Medicine, the “judicialization of the right to health” is a contested and hotly debated phenomenon in Brazil. While government officials and some scholars argue that it is driven by urban elites and private interests, and used primarily to access high-cost drugs, empirical evidence refute narratives depicting judicialization as a harbinger of inequity and an antagonist of the public health system. This article's quantitative and ethnographic analysis suggests, instead, that low-income people are working through the available legal mechanisms to claim access to medical technologies and care, turning the Judiciary into a critical site of biopolitics from below. These patient-citizenconsumers are no longer waiting for medical technologies to trickle down, and judicialization has become a key instrument to hold the State accountable for workable infrastructures.
KW - Biopolitics from Below
KW - Biopolítica de Base
KW - Critical Global Health
KW - Farmaceuticaliza-ção
KW - Infraestruturas Eficazes
KW - Judicialization of Health
KW - Judicialização da Saúde
KW - Pacientes-Cidadãos-Consumidores
KW - Patient-Citizen-Consumers
KW - Pharmaceuticalization
KW - Responsabilidade Estatal
KW - Saúde Global Crítica
KW - State Accountability
KW - Workable Infrastructures
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121827253&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85121827253&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1590/0102-6445077-105/98
DO - 10.1590/0102-6445077-105/98
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121827253
SN - 0102-6445
SP - 77
EP - 105
JO - Lua Nova
JF - Lua Nova
IS - 98
ER -