Work

Medicalising dead bodies: the First Indochina War (1946–54)

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This article shows how the medicalisation of death in wartime can be seen as integral to a broader medicalisation of war that it both stems from and sustains. More specifically, it highlights the pivotal role of post-mortem examinations – which were widely performed in French military hospitals during the First Indochina War – in advancing clinical knowledge and monitoring the quality of care, as the only way of providing diagnostic certainty. Pathology procedures also contributed to the introduction of therapeutic innovations, which were largely the result of ongoing interactions both within the armed forces medical service and with the wider military and civilian French and international medical community.

Source: Human Remains and Violence An Interdisciplinary Journal

DOI: 10.7227/hrv.10.2.4

Author: Benoît Pouget

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université

Language: English

Topic: History of Science and Medicine

Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $613