In the Meantime

Ordinary Life in Continuous Medical Testing for Lung Cancer

Bibliographic Data

ID3638596
AuthorsMichal Frumer (0000-0002-6864-9012, Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County), Rikke Sand Andersen (0000-0003-2450-5866), Peter Vedsted (0000-0003-2113-5599), Sara Marie Hebsgaard Offersen (0000-0002-5043-3678)
Year2021
Volume8
Issue2
Pages1-26
Publication date2021-06-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedicine Anthropology Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2405-691X • E-ISSN: 2405-691X
PublisherEdinburgh University Library (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.17157/mat.8.2.5085
OpenAlexW3080189723
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited26

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Danes undergoing CT scans as part of follow-up testing for potential lung cancer, we explore how access to technologies generates diagnostic uncertainty and trends of continuous testing. Our research is set in the context of a welfare state that has cultivated forms of government whose public health branches focus on early diagnosis and cancer control. Many studies on biotechnologies emphasise subject-making and power relations. Inspired by the work of Veena Das, we adopt an approach that focuses on the entanglement of diagnostic investigations with everyday life. We argue that being followed establishes a mode of being which we call 'in the meantime'. Life in the meantime is equally characterised by a dramatic mode of being-that is, waiting for death-and an ambiguous mode of being: feeling quite well. As with any life crisis, it involves some sense of agency. We show in this paper how life in the meantime informs an ordinary ethics that encourages three ethical concerns in everyday life: firstly, how to inhabit life in the meantime? Secondly, what good is the testing for? And finally, what is a good death

Everyday life · Ethics in Clinical Research · Global Cancer Incidence and Screening

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access