Disability, Technology, and Place: Social and Ethical Implications of Long-Term Dependency on Medical Devices

Abstract

Medical technologies and assistive devices such as ventilators and power wheelchairs are designed to sustain life and/or improve functionality but they can also contribute to stigmatization and social exclusion. In this paper, drawing from a study of ten men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, we explore the complex social processes that mediate the lives of persons who are dependent on multiple medical and assistive technologies. In doing so we consider the embodied and emplaced nature of disability and how life is lived through bodies coupled with technologies and experienced as ‘techno-body-subjects in situ’. Normative implications for theory and research, including bioethics research, are discussed.

Acknowledgements

Dr Gibson was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship, a CIHR Health Care, Technology and Place Strategic Program Fellowship, and a Sick Kids Foundation Children and Youth Home Care Network Post-doctoral Award.

Notes

Note

1.  BG is the first author of the paper and conducted all interviews.