disability and medical inspection: the outline of the body - doi: 10.3395/reciis.v3i2.264en

This article analyses how biomedicine evaluates the disabled body in determining the inclusion of a person with disabilities in Brazilian social protection system. An empirical research was conducted with 58 people who tried to have access to Continuous Cash Benefit Program (BPC), a social protection policy for impoverished disabled people. In order to have access to BPC, a disabled person undergoes a medical examination by physicians from Social Security National Institute (INSS), in which labor incapacity and the dependency are attested. Based on the cases that had or did not have access to BPC, this article explores the thin line between biomedical knowledge and moral beliefs about the normal and productive body.