<論文>「枯葉剤症」の副作用と「バイオ市民性(biological citizenship)」の変容

Abstract

1970年代、ベトナム戦争中に使用された複数の化学物質と関連性が示唆される複数の疾患を含む疾患群がアメリカ特有の文化的背景のもとで生まれた。1990年代末、この疾患群が新たにそこで刻み込まれた様々な「おまけ」を伴ってベトナムに持ち込まれた。本稿ではこの疾患群を「枯葉剤症」と呼び、それがどのような「副作用」をベトナム社会に及ぼしたのかを検討する。特に「バイオ市民性」という医療人類学的概念を通して見えてくる「枯葉剤症」概念に付随する考え方と、そこから生まれるベトナムの枯葉剤運動の矛盾や新たな倫理観を探る。ベトナム戦争中、アメリカ軍によって使用された枯葉剤は、戦後も多くの人々の体を蝕み続けた。しかしその実態は、今も定かではない。「被害者」は、戦争の肉体的記憶を宿す者として、国家の枠を超えた普遍的な人間「バイオ市民」として国際化された運動に組み込まれていく。しかし、ベトナムでは、内戦の記憶が「被害者」を分断し、自分を「被害者だ」と主張できる人と、できない人を作り出している。そのような状況のもとで枯葉剤被害者は「責任追及」の主体ではなく、人道支援の対象として扱われる方が倫理的だという風潮が主流になっている。筆者が2008-2009年にフィールド調査をしたベトナム中部トゥア・ティエン・フエ省のアルーイ地区では、被害者の科学的選定にはほとんど関心が向かず、科学的選定は倫理的ではないという人さえ出てきているのである。

In the 1970s, a post-Vietnam War syndrome, which consists of an assortment of physical disorders associated with chemical defoliants generically known as "Agent Orange, " emerged in the United States. Toward the end of the 1990s, this concept of a disease (which I call "Agent Orange Sickness" in this article) was imported to Vietnam, along with the specific cultural logics that gave rise to this concept. In this article, I ask what kind of side-effects this concept may have in Vietnam. Through the notion of "biological citizenship, " I explore the contradictions within the contemporary Vietnamese Agent Orange movement and examine the emergence of a new ethical stance that emerges from these gaps. The chemical defoliants the US military and its allies used during the Vietnam War continue to harm the exposed population. Yet its reality remains uncertain. Within the internationalized justice movement, the victims of Agent Orange are invoked as a particular type of witnesses, bearing somatic memory that posits a particular notion of humanity with shared vulnerability to the poison. However, in A Luoi Valley of Thua Thien Hue Province, where I conducted my fieldwork in 2008 and 2009, old social boundaries such as ethnicity and wartime loyalties exert their influence on who are considered to be Agent Orange victims. Within this post-civil war regime, the identity as a "victim of Agent Orange" is closely tied to the family's wartime record, not only in terms of official recognition, but also in terms of subjective identification. Post-civil war citizenship thus interferes with biological citizenship and produces a differential consciousness of "victims." In A Luoi, both potential victims and the medical and state officials involved in dealing out government Agent Orange pension display a collective apathy toward biomedical identification of the victims. Those involved consider this program as an aid for suffering individuals, rather than for the cause of their suffering. In this context, the issue of Agent Orange is increasingly seen as a humanitarian issue, rather than as a cause for social justice.