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Biopolitical endpoints: Diagnosing a deserving British nuclear test veteran

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  • Trundle, Catherine

Abstract

This article examines recent claims for healthcare made by British veterans who participated in nuclear bomb testing in the 1950s. Specifically, it focuses on their claims for war disablement pensions, exploring how they seek and challenge medical diagnoses. Detailing three veteran case studies, the article offers an ethnographic analysis of illness narratives. It explores how sufferers attempt to recast and reject the evidential burdens that they face in pension appeals, and identifies three narratives strategies that they deploy aimed at linking somatic realities to political etiologies. I propose the notion of biopolitical endpoints to capture how test veterans narratively connect political and medical domains as they seek to enable state culpability and redress.

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  • Trundle, Catherine, 2011. "Biopolitical endpoints: Diagnosing a deserving British nuclear test veteran," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 882-888, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:6:p:882-888
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    Cited by:

    1. Becky Alexis‐Martin & Matthew Breay Bolton & Dimity Hawkins & Sydney Tisch & Talei Luscia Mangioni, 2021. "Addressing the Humanitarian and Environmental Consequences of Atmospheric Nuclear Weapon Tests: A Case Study of UK and US Test Programs at Kiritimati (Christmas) and Malden Islands, Republic of Kiriba," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(1), pages 106-121, February.
    2. Heritage, John & McArthur, Amanda, 2019. "The diagnostic moment: A study in US primary care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 262-271.
    3. Phillips, Tarryn, 2012. "Repressive authenticity in the quest for legitimacy: Surveillance and the contested illness lawsuit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1762-1768.
    4. Gøril Ursin, 2020. "Framing Dementia Care Practices: The Politics of Early Diagnosis in the Making of Care," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.

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