Abstract
In this paper I revisit previous critiques that I have made of much, though by no means all, bioethical discourse. These pertain to faithfulness to dualistic ontology, a taken-for-granted normative anthropocentrism, and the exclusion of a consideration of how political economy shapes the conditions for bioethical discourse (Twine Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 8(3):285-295, 2005; International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food 16(3):1-18, 2007, 2010). Part of my argument around bioethical dualist ontology is to critique the assumption of a division between the “medical” (human) and “agricultural” (nonhuman) and to show various ways in which they are interrelated. I deepen this analysis with a focus on transnational pharmaceutical companies, with specific attention to their role in enhancing agricultural production through animal drug administration. I employ the topical case of antibiotics in order to speak to current debates in not only the interdisciplinary field of bioethics but also that of animal studies. More generally, the animal-industrial complex (Twine Journal for Critical Animal Studies 10(1):12-39, 2012) is underlined as a highly relevant bioethical object that deserves more conceptual and empirical attention.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A more Marxist understanding of the fate of farmed animal bodies under capitalism would focus on the distinction between the formal and real subsumption of labour and the formal and real subsumption of nature (see Smith 2007 and also Boyd, Prudham, and Schurman 2001, 564–565, although their human/nature distinction could be seen as jarring to much animal studies literature).
References
Abraham, J. 2010. Pharmaceuticalization of society in context: Theoretical, empirical and health dimensions. Sociology 44(4): 603–622.
Akhtar, A. 2012. Animals and public health: Why treating animals better is critical to human welfare. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Benatar, S., and G. Brock, eds. 2011. Global health and global health ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boyd, W., W.S. Prudham, and R. Schurman. 2001. Industrial dynamics and the problem of nature. Society and Natural Resources 14(7): 555–570.
Chan, M. 2012. Antimicrobial resistance in the European Union and the world: The EU’s contributions to the solutions of the global antimicrobial resistance problem. Keynote address at the conference on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance: Time for Action, March 14, in Copenhagen, Denmark. http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2012/amr_20120314/en/index.html.
Clarke, A.E. 1998. Disciplining reproduction: Modernity, American life sciences, and the problems of sex. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Coppin, D. 2003. Foucauldian hog futures: The birth of mega-hog farms. The Sociological Quarterly 44(4): 597–616.
Dawson, A., ed. 2011. Public health ethics: Key concepts and issues in policy and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Donaldson, S.C., B.A. Straley, N.V. Hegde, et al. 2006. Molecular epidemiology of ceftiofur-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from dairy calves. Applied and Environmental Biology 72(6): 3940–3948.
Forbes. 2013. The world’s biggest public companies. http://www.forbes.com/global2000/.
Foucault, M. 1990. The history of sexuality, volume 1: An introduction. Trans. R. Hurley. New York: Vintage. Originally published as La volenté de savior (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1976).
Hird, M.J. 2006. Animal transex. Australian Feminist Studies 21(49): 35–50.
Holloway, L., and C. Morris. 2007. Exploring biopower in the regulation of farm animal bodies: Genetic policy interventions in UK livestock. Genomics, Society and Policy 3(2): 82–98.
Keep Antibiotics Working. 2004. Antibiotic resistance threatens public health. http://www.keepantibioticsworking.com/.
Laurence, J. 2012. Experts fear diseases “impossible to treat”: Alarming rise in bacteria resistant to antibiotics, Government report finds. The Independent, February 20. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/experts-fear-diseases-impossible-to-treat-7216662.html.
Le Tellier, A. 2012. Forget the lame FDA: Go meatless. Los Angeles Times, April 13. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/13/news/la-ol-fda-antibiotics-livestock-meat-20120413.
Mann, S. 2010. Bioethics in Perspective: Corporate power, public health and political economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Noske, B. 1989. Humans and other animals: Beyond the boundaries of anthropology. London: Pluto Press.
Petersen, A. 2011. The politics of bioethics. London: Routledge.
Pick, A. 2012. Turning to animals between love and law. New Formations 76: 68–85.
Pogge, T. 2007. World poverty and human rights. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Potter, V.R. 1971. Bioethics: Bridge to the future. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Potter, V.R. 1999. Bioethics, biology, and the biosphere. The Hastings Center Report 29(1): 38–40.
Price, L., M. Stegger, H. Hasman, et al. 2012. Staphylococcus aureus CC398: Host adaptation and emergence of Methicillin resistance in livestock. mBio 3(1): 1–6.
Rappeport, A. 2012. Pfizer to spin off animal health business. Financial Times, June 7. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/24df783c-b0c2-11e1-a79b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2diIWf5H0.
Seal, B.S., H.S. Lillehoj, D.M. Donovan, and C.G. Gay. 2013. Alternatives to antibiotics: A symposium on the challenges and solutions for animal production. Animal Health Research Reviews 14(1): 78–87.
Smith, N. 2007. Nature as accumulation strategy. Socialist Register 43: 1–21.
Soil Association. 2013. The Alliance to Save our Antibiotics. http://www.soilassociation.org/animalwelfare/antibiotics/alliancetosaveourantibiotics.
Twine, R. 2005. Constructing a critical bioethics by deconstructing culture/nature dualism. Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy 8(3): 285–295.
Twine, R. 2007. Searching for the win–win? Animals, genomics and welfare. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food 16(3): 1–18.
Twine, R. 2010. Animals as biotechnology: Ethics, sustainability and critical animal studies. London: Routledge.
Twine, R. 2012. Revealing the “animal-industrial complex”: A concept and method for critical animal studies? Journal for Critical Animal Studies 10(1): 12–39.
Yeo, A. 2012. 2011 animal health industry rankings: Plot thickens with big changes still to come. Animal Pharm, April 30. https://www.agra-net.net/agra/animal-pharm/analysis/2011-animal-health-industry-rankings-plot-thickens-with-big-changes-still-to-come-3920.htm.
Acknowledgments
The support of the U.K.’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is gratefully acknowledged. The work was part of the programme of the ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (Cesagen) when I was a researcher at Lancaster University. I also thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Twine, R. Animals on Drugs: Understanding the Role of Pharmaceutical Companies in the Animal-Industrial Complex. Bioethical Inquiry 10, 505–514 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-013-9476-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-013-9476-1