Abstract

The sociological debate about the body and STS studies on biomedical sciences underline how it is not possible to clearly separate the biological dimension from the sociocultural component of human being. Empirical studies on healthcare organizations point out the relational and situated character of the body. On the base of data collected through participant observation in a centre of assisted reproduction and in an intensive care unit, the paper discusses the concept of body developed and used by the Evidence Based Medicine. Moreover, it illustrates how body in medical practices is not an universally recognizable and immutable element, but rather the result of a reconfiguration process articulated in three working practices: the disassembling, in which the body is split up in simple units; the suspension, in which elements involved are negotiated; the realignment, in which the body is conceived as a whole to be accountable also towards the society.