Foucault And Biopower

Lock up the unemployed, single mothers, defrocked priests, prostitutes and those living on welfare. This would be a new edict if Foucault’s concept of biopower were to be put into practice. Biopower is defined by the French scholar, historian, and social theorist, Michel Foucault, as institutional control over life and death of the human species particularly those who were deemed to be “socially unproductive or disruptive”. He has argued that it is a long-term result of the 17th century Cartesian mechanization of nature and can be considered dangerous. Or is it? If one has the power of manipulation over life, and death, is that truly dangerous? Should someone have the power to be able to give, extend, or end a life? Is it overall helping or
Specifically, he studied the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in France, which was little more than a warehouse. It was merely an institution or a dumping ground that gathered the imperfect people: the poor, the sick and the insane. It served as a prison for prostitutes and a holding place for the mentally disabled, criminally insane, epileptics, and the poor. Today, this would have been considered demoralizing to even exist. However, what is so different about this “hospital” than today’s prison? Society is still corrupt to this day; however, things are dealt with in a slightly different way. It used to be acceptable to lock up anyone who was different in a building and make them stay there to rot away. Today, the sick are put in medical hospitals and the criminally insane are imprisoned, or roaming the streets, since there are no longer long term institutions such as the Pitié-Salpêtrière. The poor are put on the streets or in
Big Pharma funds 60 percent of all clinical trials, and it takes advantage of the power to persuade researchers and influence institutions. The byproducts of industry cover ups are massive numbers of deaths corresponding with millions of dollars in industry profits. Big Pharma is also responsible for killing more people than motor vehicle accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pharmaceutical drugs, specifically prescribed opioids such as Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Methadone are responsible for more than 165,000 deaths from 1999 to 2014. Each year, the number of overdoses from prescribed opioids increases. So the question that it comes down to is: Should we trust a company that doesn’t tell the truth and is in it for the money, rather than to help sick people? Currently, addiction is at an all-time high. The more drugs the pharmaceutical industry produces and sells, the more money they earn. Whether the drugs are being prescribed or are bought on the street, the money all goes back for Big Pharma to profit. The high increase and rate of addiction is not unfamiliar to Big Pharma. So why do doctors still have the ability to prescribe high-dose opioids like they are candy. The Big Pharma conspiracy suggests that the pharmaceutical industry is purely out for the money, and