From “Röentgen’s Body” to “Rendering Body”. Considerations on eugenics and the construction of the medical image in the 21th century

Abstract

The theroretical focus is chronologically situated in the late 19th century – the discovery of the X-rays by Röentgen and the construction of knowledge, covering anatomy, images and the scientific breakthrough, which I call the “radiological body or Röentgen’s body” –, more specifically over the last 50 years of this discovery. The knowledge initially constructed in Europe, at the time influenced by the ideals of scientific rationality (eugenics) and discourses on the body made throughout the 20th century, legitimate what is normal and pathological in anatomy. This paper raises the following theoretical questions: having focused on the digital images of today, which result in a constructed and “rendered” body, can this body be interpreted as having an “eugenic” profile? Can it become a manipulable technological device? After looking at the historical framework of eugenics and its relevance today and questioning the concept of binary/digital body and of the “Visible Human Project”, and its construction, I cover the “rendering/reforming” process of the body of medicine up to the 21st century. I have also examined how digital medical images, which are associated with a certain “expertise”, rely on a set of classifications in the form of patterns of normality.