This paper focuses upon the nature of the mortuary as a socio-medical institution and the discourse of pathology which operates within it. More specifically, by examining the manner in which pathology is operationalised in Belfast it demonstrates: (i) how medical interests are frequently fused with those of the wider politico-technological system within which they are ensconced; (ii) how the assumptions and investigative principles of pathology are grounded in social rather than specifically clinical concerns, and (iii) how the subject population on which pathology concentrates is selected in accordance with social as well as clinical characteristics.
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