HLTH260 Chapter Notes - Chapter 30: Médecins Sans Frontières, Michel Foucault, Lead Poisoning
10 Jul 2019
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The two ministers that she managed to convince of the importance of her cause were both founding members of medecins sans frontieres who already shared her ethos. In other words, when the indignity of foreigners" living conditions was unable to provoke the local and national political reaction it deserved, resorting to arguments on the deterioration of bodies instead did. The legitimacy of the illness counted more than the illegitimacy of the population. This moral appeal to people"s physical lives when their social lives do not appear important enough to justify action (in this case, finding better homes for immigrant families) is currently operating in many areas of government action. In a much-quoted text, michel foucault (1976) proposed a theory of biopower that can shed light on this. For centuries, he wrote, politics were organized around a sovereign power, which was the right to kill.
