Given at the Rhetoric Society of Europe’s conference in University of East Anglia, Norwich on July 5th 2017. Minor changes made to oral presentation.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of rhetoric in health and medicine, specifically in the regulatory science of health and medicine. I will argue that rhetorical scholars are in a unique position to introduce conceptions of embodied citizenship to public health and the regulation of medicines. Much scholarly attention is paid to the regulatory approval of new medicines and the safety and efficacy it has with patients. But what remains under-studied is the interface between authorities in medicine and patients conceived as a public in which discourses circulate to form opinions and attitudes about medicine, bodies and health care. More of this research would not only benefit physicians in clinical practice but also public health more generally.