Editorial: Discursive Representations of Controversial Issues in Medicine and Health

This editorial is meant to introduce a thematic issue of LCM that addresses representations of controversial issues in medicine and health from the perspective of discourse analysis. Due to their high relevance in everybody’s lives, it comes as no surprise that such issues figure prominently in public debates. Some of the most controversial among them are abortion, medical use of marijuana, euthanasia and assisted suicide, end-of-life care, life support for the terminally ill, gene editing, genomic medicine, donor insemination, surrogacy, to name but a few, in a context where the production and the consumption of scientific information involve, affect and (dis)connect multiple actors, stakeholders and multiple publics, sub-publics as well as counter-publics. It is a picture of remarkable complexity where different values, opinions and beliefs are shaped by a multiplicity of social and cognitive factors. This editorial deals with a few general aspects, providing some background to the more specific studies presented in the articles included in the issues.