The frontier between intimacy and the political sphere has been one of the supports of Modernity since the first philosophical reflexions about Modern State and the "for intrieur'' (Hobbes). Since the 1960s, this frontier has been blurred in relation with the new "body policies'': gender policies, family policies, life policies, ranging from biogenetics to the staying with the dying and the question of euthanasia, without omitting assisted procreation and research on stem-cells. In each of these fields, the consequence of the new body policies is mainly the intervention of State in what was beforehand considered as an intimate sphere. On the frontier between intimacy and the political sphere, care, particularly the palliative care, has become a good observatory of that discreet, but essential, transformation of some of the anthropological foundations of contemporaneous societies. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
