What is biomedicine?

The term ‘biomedicine’ is (surprise, surprise) central to this project. But it is somewhat ambiguous, as Alberto Cambrosio and Peter Keating pointed out in their historical review of the term in Chapter 3 of Biomedical Platforms (2003). Viviane Quirke’s recent report from the symposium ‘The era of biomedicine: science, technology and health in France and Great Britain, 1945-1975’ held in Oxford last spring gives a summary of the problem of defining the term ‘biomedicine’. Even more useful in this respect is Quirke’s discussion of Jean-Paul Gaudilliere’s concept of ‘biomedical complex’ in her review in Studies in history and philosophy of science. Part C. Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, vol. 35, ss. 765-76 (2004) (electronic access through DNLB) of his book Inventer la biomédecine: la France, l’Amérique et la production des savoirs du vivant, 1945–1965 (2002).