Medicalization of Cyberspace

University of Paisley, UK Loughborough University, UK

'Andy Miah and Emma Rich have extracted from cyberspace fascinating narratives about topics such as the persistent sexual arousal syndrome, the Visible Human Project, the controversy about an online auction for a human kidney (which never actually happened), suicide anorexia nervosa (Pro-Ana) movement...[They] seek to listen to what is going on in cyberspace and to understand how it affects the way that people see health and disease.' - New England Journal of Medicine'The Medicalization of Cyberspace is a compellling and comprehensive consideration of how the internet and web are impacting medical practice, communication between experts and patients, the construction of the posthuman body, and many other pressing issues. Highly recommended for anyone interested in how the digital cultures of cyberspace are shaping the practice, understanding, and consumption of medicine in the contemporary period.' - N. Katherine Hayles, University of California, Los Angeles, USA'The Medicalization of Cyberspace makes a valid and very necessary contribution to the conversation concerning cyberspace, medicalization and the body. Its value is found in the fact that rather than duplicating arguments already advanced on the positives and negatives of medical information being presented on the web or the horrors which stalk online discussion forms, it digs to the deeper issues of why cyberspace is altering the interaction between medicalization, health and body - a question which is often overlooked.' - Matt James, BioCentre BioNews

• Introduction: Medicine in Society Section 1: Cybermedical Discourse 1. Medicalization in Cyberspace 2. Cybermedical Bodies 3. Cybermedicine and Reliability Discourse 4. Virtual Governance of Health Behaviour 5. Cyberpatients, Illness Narratives and Medicalization Section 2: Cyber Bodies 6. Partial Prostitution 7. Biological Property Rights in Cyberspace 8. The Online Pro-Ana Movement 9. The Bioethics of Cybermedicalization. Conclusion: After-Cyborgs or Artificial Life