Growth hormone, enhancement and the pharmaceuticalisation of short stature

Michael Morrison

Social Science & Medicine, 2015, vol. 131, issue C, 305-312

Abstract: This paper takes the biological drug human Growth Hormone (hGH) as a case study to investigate processes of pharmaceuticalisation and medicalisation in configuring childhood short stature as a site for pharmaceutical intervention. Human growth hormone is considered to have legitimate applications in treating childhood growth hormone deficiency and short stature associated with other recognised conditions. It is also regarded by bioethicists and others as a form of human biomedical enhancement when applied to children with idiopathic or ‘normal’ short stature. The purpose of this study is not to evaluate whether treatment of idiopathic short stature is enhancement or not, but to evaluate how some applications of hGH in treating short stature have come to be accepted and stabilised as legitimate ‘therapies’ while others remain contested as ‘enhancements’. A comparative, historical approach is employed, drawing on approaches from medical sociology and Science and Technology Studies (STS) to set out a socio-technical history of hGH in the US and UK. Through this history the relative influence and interplay of drivers of pharmaceuticalisation, including industry marketing and networks of drug distribution, and processes of medicalisation will be employed to address this question and simultaneously query the value of enhancement as a sociological concept.

Keywords: USA; UK; Pharmaceuticalisation; Medicalisation; Human enhancement; History; Growth hormone; STS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614006613
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:131:y:2015:i:c:p:305-312

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.015

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().