[Medical technologies in the contemporary world: an historical approach from the peripheries. Introduction].

The mid-20th century opening of a public specialized Clinic for the treatment of patients affected by Leukaemia was a significant event in Alicante. It represented both the beginning of specialization in the field of blood diseases and an opportunity for the Provincial Hospital to enter the world of laboratory research. The social prestige of medical technologies, the introduction of a blood transfusion service and the figure of Dr. Mas Magro were the fundamental reasons behind the birth of this project in spite of its high cost. The aim of the paper is to analyze a case of the development of medical technologies at a local level. On a «prolific» relationship. The role of «health» in the propagation of contraceptive sterilization in Costa Rica (Spanish) MARÍA CARRANZA .......................................................................................... 187 Summary 1.—Introduction. 2.—Sterilization: popular and «democratic» 3.—Health as disease and sterilization as «therapy». 3.1—Every sterilization a «therapeutic» one. 3.2—An arbitrary distribution. 4.—Health as well-being and contraceptive sterilization as a tool for its promotion. 5.—Promoting and preventing: The persistence of health. Abstract In Costa Rica, female sterilization for contraceptive purposes is a practice common to women from diverse socio-economic sectors. This is the case despite the existence until 1999 of legal restrictions on its use. This article explores the role played by the idea of health as the rationale by which sterilization for contraceptive purposes has become available, inutially as the reason for allowing its availability (and demand) in a legal context that only permited its use for therapeutic purposes, and later, as the motive that legitimates its contraceptive use.In Costa Rica, female sterilization for contraceptive purposes is a practice common to women from diverse socio-economic sectors. This is the case despite the existence until 1999 of legal restrictions on its use. This article explores the role played by the idea of health as the rationale by which sterilization for contraceptive purposes has become available, inutially as the reason for allowing its availability (and demand) in a legal context that only permited its use for therapeutic purposes, and later, as the motive that legitimates its contraceptive use.