Bioethical and Biopolitical Challenges Posed by the Medical Management of Pain and Suffering

Abstract

The medical management of pain and suffering entails a number of bioethical and political challenges (that can be considered ­"biopolitical" inasmuch as political decisions concerning life are involved) and challenges. In this article, I present, classify and explain these challenges in the context of the current developments in biomedicine. The solutions to these challenges require the concept of affirmative biopolitics instead of negative biopolitics (as formulated by Roberto Esposito), meaning politics that promote the expansion and potentiation of the subjects, but do not manipulate life in order to subjugate and objectivize the individuals. Moreover, I argue for a pragmatic form of bioethics that moderates the discussion among the agents involved in a dilemma by making explicit the power relations in each individual case in order to avoid domination and imposition.