Rise of Bio-Medicine and its Relevance to Health and Illness in Contemporary British Society

This article discusses the rise of bio-medicine and its relevance to health and illness in contemporary British society. It explores the impact of conflict theory and germ theory on the field of bio-medicine. The article also highlights the emergency of the bio-medical model due to industrialization in British society.

Sociology of Health
1

Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................3
1. Discuss the rise of bio – medicine and its relevance to health and illness in the
contemporary British society..........................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................7
2

INTRODUCTION
Health and illness are two major aspects of human body that run hand in hand. It is
very important for human beings to take care of their health or otherwise they face the
illness or any type of disease (Nettleton, 2020).
Bio - medicine is the field of medicine which comprises of aspects of research or
practice in the biology or studies principles of bio chemistry. Bio – medicine helps in
getting along to cope up with various diseases and illness which human body imbibes.
There is growth and development in field of bio – medicine which has ensured that
through medicines any disease is curable to an extent. There has been diversified
information which the bio – medicine departments have gained and which has helped
them in providing appropriate medicines to the people.
Two theories which are briefly associated with biomedicine in sociology are –
Conflict theory by Karl Marx and Germ Theory by Parson.
MAIN BODY
1. Discuss the rise of bio – medicine and its relevance to health and illness in the
contemporary British society
Biomedicine is the branch of medicine which is concerned with the application of the
principles of biochemistry and biology to medical research or practice. Various
researches are being done for making the medicines and through this the medicines are
made in the context of keeping an eye on the various changes and development in the
medicinal society (Au, 2021). This is basically related to science which involves the
practices of making the medicines by improving the ingredients which are there in the
medicines or which are involved in it. With the help of bio – medicine the medicines are
improved and enhanced in the ways through which the medical field is keeping itself
updated with all the changes which are been there.
There are various theories to bio – medicine which are explained as below –
Conflict Theory (Karl Marx) – In this theory which is related to bio medicine, Karl Marx
believed that the health is the prime factor which should be considered as important
aspect for which human beings are living and if any disease or illness happens it should
be cured and taken action against it. This will improve the vision of watching towards
3

the changes which the field bio – medicine has taken into and this will also motivate and
engage doctors in making the best medicines which is to be provided to people
(Beardmore and et.al., 2017). In this theory, by Karl Marx he ensures that all the health
care professionals work towards making the health the health effective for living the life.
Marx also says that health and ill health are the two factors which should be viewed
as social class problem as there would be no ill – health if people are aware of how to
take care of themselves. For this, bio – medicine is approved by the government of
British society which ensures that all the factors which are related to health should be
taken care of while making or creating any type of medicine for the public. The bio –
medicine is the effective tool which is considered important for making the medicines
which is related to the health aspect of an individual (Dao and et.al., 2019). This is also
the major cause as how the use of antibiotics is applicable for the treatment and what
are its control measures which are to be taken in accordance to the bio – medicine field.
Antibiotics are basically used to treat and prevent the bacterial infections which are
there in the body. Antibiotics help in treating the health problems of an individual.
Antibiotics are the group of medicines which is used to treat the infections and which
helps in treatment of any type of disease which is there in the body. The control of any
type of illness or disease can be only done with help of how the antibiotics react
positively with the body and hence changes are then made effective by treating the
disease with the type of antibiotics which is being used by an individual.
Germ theory (Parsons) – It is the functionalist model which is being framed by Parson.
This model argues that illness is form of deviance which disturbs the social functions of
the society and this makes the most of the concern in making the medicine which is to
be made available through the bio – medicine field (Marshall and et.al., 2020). This is
the major concern in the bio – medicine which makes the most concern for the
individual health. Sick role is term which is used in the medical sociology which is
regarded to the sickness of an individual. Parson was a functionalist sociologist who
argued that sickness is the process which an individual suffers from and being sick
means that the sufferer is the main person in the sickness of any disease being caused.
4

Parson in the functionalist argued that illness can only be understood and
analyzed deeply by the form of deviance which affects the social functioning of the
society and in this case the British society at large scale. the theory outlined tyhe two
perspectives of the sick person among which number one is the exempt from the social
role when a person is sick and the second is the person is totally responsible for the
condition in which it is suffering and this explains that health of an individual should be
taken care of in the best manner possible (Dhakal, 2019). For this, bio – medicine is the
best way to kill the germs which are there in the body and for these medicines such as
antibiotics are made which makes the human body get well soon of any type of illness
or disease. Treatment in the body of individual can be done through the medicines
which are having antibiotics that will help in killing the germs in the body and this is the
process through which the individual is able to take care of themselves. Control of the
disease can be don effectively with the help of taking the antibiotics which are to be
taken for the purpose of treatment in body and this will help in making the most of the
process of getting rid of any disease quickly and effectively.
Emergency of bio – medical model due to industrialization in British
contemporary society defines how the working and purpose of bio – medical aspect
has changed the ways of how the human body is being analyzed and how it generates
the effective ways through which the human body can adopt changes. Bio – medical
model is defined as the modelling system to study the aspect of any disease or human
biology (Dokumacı, 2019). Due to industrialization the bio medical model has been
updated with the medicines which are to be used and along with that various changes
have been adopted by the medicine field for curing any type of disease.
Bio - medical model basically defines that the human biological system can be
adopted to understand abnormal and normal gene to phenotype which provides the
basis for intervention in human diseases. Bio – medical model helps in analyzing the
disease which is to people in the British society and this helps in making the process of
industrialization expand on the scales that the medicines are to be made in such a
manner that all the facilities are to be provided to the human by making them aware of
the health issues which they may face. There has been an emergency for making the
5

industrialization process grow fast in the British society to make them aware of the
situation which may occur in the various forms of diseases (Lakoff, 2017). The bio –
medical model will thus help in making the process of how the bio – medicines will be
formed and this is how industrialization will be encouraged in the British society and this
will help in regaining the various forms of medicines which will cure the disease of
Britishers. The British society is the main source for increasing the industrialization and
making it an emergency for the society for the purpose of bio – medical factor and
making of the bio – medicines.
Thus, the emergency of bio – medical model due to industrialization in British
contemporary society helped in making major changes in British society which has now
adopted the bio – medicines for cause of providing medicinal services to the people in
the society at large scale.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded from the above report that rise of bio – medicine and its
relevance to health and illness in contemporary British society has helped in
understanding role of bio – medicine in the British society. And along with this, conflict
theory of Karl Marx was described which ensured that process of human health and
illness are major concerns in field of Bio – medicines to be produced and to be made
available to the people. The theory also explained ill health of human should be cured
by stating some of argued points which Karl has made in theory. Furthermore, Parsons
germ theory was also explained along with aspects of antibiotics and its treatment with
control factors. And finally, emergency of bio – medical model due to industrialization in
British contemporary society was explained and ensured that process of
industrialization for bio – medical plants is necessary as it has called for emergency.
6

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Nettleton, S., 2020. The sociology of health and illness. John Wiley & Sons.
Au, L., 2021. Recent scientific/intellectual movements in biomedicine. Social Science &
Medicine.278.p.113950.
Beardmore, R.E. and et.al., 2017. Antibiotic cycling and antibiotic mixing: which one
best mitigates antibiotic resistance?. Molecular biology and
evolution.34(4).pp.802-817.
Dao, B. and et.al., 2019. Impartiality and infectious disease: Prioritizing individuals
versus the collective in antibiotic prescription. AJOB empirical
bioethics.10(1).pp.63-69.
Marshall, C. and et.al., 2020. RE: Germline selection shapes human mitochondrial DNA
diversity.
Dhakal, R.P., 2019. Contribution of Social Science Disciplines to make Public Health
Interdisciplinary.
Dokumacı, A., 2019. The ‘disabilitization’of medicine: The emergence of Quality of Life
as a space to interrogate the concept of the medical model. History of the
Human Sciences.32(5).pp.164-190.
Lakoff, A., 2017. Unprepared: global health in a time of emergency. Univ of California
Press.
7