Tracking Failing Biologies

• In Event: Well Years, Good Years, Quality Years – Calibrations and Aggregations of Daily Living: Temporalities

Abstract

Our biologies are constantly failing us, whether metabolically, immunologically, cardiovascularly, hormonally, neurologically or genetically. Such failure can span critical organ failure and uncontrolled cell division to milder aberrant immune responses that cause allergies. In this paper I use the notion of failing biologies to explore how living with (especially chronic) disease – morbid living – has come to be understood as a series of constraints, limitations, discomforts and/or apprehensions which impinge on and shape daily living. Human biology is seen to fail individuals when, for example, shortening lifespans, impeding reproductive (or other) desires, diminishing ‘quality of life’ or hindering daily routines. As a consequence (bio)medical treatments often aim to arrest the (progressive) biological failure that can lead to the tissue damage that ultimately will impinge on an individual’s (not to mention his or her family’s and loved ones’) daily life to greater or lesser degrees. If treatment is available and accessible, such conditions as cancer, kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, diabetes or lung disease can in many cases be managed giving rise to, what we might think of as disease-specific kinds of living. Millions of patients lead chemo-lives, dialysis-lives, ARV-lives or insulin-lives characterized by particular rhythms, disruptions, impairments but also possibilities and they are consequently able to (chronically) live with their disease for years if not decades. In conclusion, I suggest that medical anthropology and related qualitative health research have been central in the consolidation of knowledge of the kinds of living that follow in the wake of failing biologies, knowledge which is inextricably bound to healthcare practices aimed at improving the lives of those living with disease.

Author

• Ayo Wahlberg, University of Copenhagen