Abstract
In this chapter we begin to explore the ‘singularization’ of the PrEP RCT. We pose the question: how are the pill, the RCTs and their bioethics each enacted as singular? As such, we mean to investigate how each is performed as a unitary object or event. Of course, we shall see that RCTs, the pill and bioethics are contested and we shall trace how they are interpreted in conflicting ways. However, ‘behind’ these interpretations there is a commonly accepted underlying ‘essence’ that appears to exist beyond ‘differences of opinion’. Put differently, in order for there to exist an ‘essence’ — here, for example, a PrEP pill that has at its core the primary quality of a pharmaceutical preparation condensed into a pill — a further set of ‘secondary’ qualities are necessary to explain variation in effect. In tracing out the process of singularization by drawing on a range of empirical material including interviews with HIV trial investigators we also point to the ways that other types of entities — most notably trial participant groups — both enter into the enactment of PrEP and themselves come to be enacted in particular and, importantly, problematic ‘singularized’ ways. Indeed, as we show later in the chapter, the bifurcation of trial participants in the form of a (recalcitrant) subject/ (experimental) body split participates in threatening the viability of PrEP as an ‘efficacious’ entity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Mike Michael and Marsha Rosengarten
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Michael, M., Rosengarten, M. (2013). The Gold Standard: The Complex Singularity of PrEP, RCT and Bioethics. In: Innovation and Biomedicine. Health, Technology and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316677_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316677_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33770-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31667-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)