THE MEDICALIZATION OF HOPE: REFLECTIONS ABOUT LIFE, HEALTH/SICKNESS AND DEATH

Abstract

This article tackles the process of transformation of the meanings of hope, which has sprung from the secularization of modern Western society. With the loss of transcendence and the emphasis on physicality and hedonism, the hope category became an object of medicalization, acquiring new meanings. The text explains how the biomedical apparatus began to deal with the production of hope in rela­tion to health and the construction of a “death with dignity”, after the second half of the 20th century. The analysis is performed based on bibliographical survey of the thematic. The debates around hope that is “legitimate” – or not – mostly center on the emphasis placed upon the right to individual autonomy, which denotes the preeminence of current moral values in each examined context. Keywords: Life and death, hope, medicalization