Stem Cell Tourism and the Political Economy of Hope
Stem Cell Tourism and the Political Economy of Hope

Author: Alan Petersen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-01-12

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1137470437

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This book provides a unique and innovative perspective on the controversial phenomenon of ‘stem cell tourism’. A growing number of patients are embarking on stem cell treatments that are clinically unproven and yet available in clinics and hospitals around the world. The authors offer a cutting-edge multi-dimensional perspective on this complex and rapidly changing phenomenon, including an analysis of the experiences of those who have undertaken or have contemplated undertaking a stem cell treatment, as well as examination of the views of those who undertake research or advise on or provide stem cell treatments. Developing the concept of ‘the political economy of hope’, and referencing case studies of the stem cell treatment market in China, Germany, and Australia, this book argues for a reframing of ‘stem cell tourism’ to understand why patients and families pursue these treatments and whether authorities’ concerns are justified and whether their responses are appropriate and proportionate to the alleged risks.

Exploiting Hope
Exploiting Hope

Author: Jeremy Snyder

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-09-03

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0197501281

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We often hear stories of people in terrible and seemingly intractable situations who are preyed upon by someone offering promises of help. Frequently these cases are condemned in terms of "exploiting hope." These accusations are made in a range of contexts: human smuggling, employment relationships, unproven medical 'cures.' We hear this concept so often and in so many contexts that, with all its heavy lifting in public discourse, its actual meaning tends to lose focus. Despite its common use, it can be hard to understand precisely what is wrong about exploiting hope what can accurately be captured under this concept, and what should be done. In this book, philosopher Jeremy Snyder offers an in-depth study of hope's exploitation. First, he examines the concept in the abstract, including a close look at how this term is used in the popular press and analysis of the concepts of exploitation and hope. This theory-based section culminates in a definitive account of what it is to exploit hope, and when and why doing so is morally problematic. The second section of the book examines the particularly dangerous cases in which unproven medical interventions target the most vulnerable: for example, participants in clinical trials, purchasing unproven stem cell interventions, "right to try" legislation, and crowdfunding for unproven medical interventions. This book is essential reading for ethical theorists, policymakers, and health researchers, on a topic of growing visibility and importance.

Bizarre Bioethics
Bizarre Bioethics

Author: Henk A.M.J. ten Have

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2022-03

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1421443023

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Bizarre bioethics -- The establishment of bioethics - Ghosts - Monsters - Pilgrims - Prophets - Relics -- Critical bioethics.

The Matrix of Stem Cell Research
The Matrix of Stem Cell Research

Author: Christine Hauskeller

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1351597930

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Stem cell research has been a problematic endeavour. For the past twenty years it has attracted moral controversies in both the public and the professional sphere. The research involves not only laboratories, clinics and people, but ethics, industries, jurisprudence, and markets. Today it contributes to the development of new therapies and affects increasingly many social arenas. The matrix approach introduced in this book offers a new understanding of this science in its relation to society. The contributions are multidisciplinary and intersectional, illustrating how agency and influence between science and society go both ways. Conceptually, this volume presents a situated and reflexive approach for philosophy and sociology of the life sciences. The practices that are part of stem cell research are dispersed, and the concepts that tie them together are tenuous; there are persistent problems with the validation of findings, and the ontology of the stem cell is elusive. The array of applications shapes a growing bioeconomy that is dependent on patient donations of tissues and embryos, consumers, and industrial support. In this volume it is argued that this research now denotes not a specific field but a flexible web of intersecting practices, discourses, and agencies. To capture significant parts of this complex reality, this book presents recent findings from researchers, who have studied in-depth aspects of this matrix of stem cell research. This volume presents state-of-the-art examinations from senior and junior scholars in disciplines from humanities and laboratory research to various social sciences, highlighting particular normative and epistemological intersections. The book will appeal to scholars as well as wider audiences interested in developments in life science and society interactions. The novel matrix approach and the accessible case studies make this an excellent resource for science and society courses.

Global Migration, Gender, and Health Professional Credentials
Global Migration, Gender, and Health Professional Credentials

Author: Margaret Walton-Roberts

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2022-03-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1487531753

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Bringing together diverse approaches and case studies of international health worker migration, Global Migration, Gender, and Health Professional Credentials critically reimagines how we conceptualize the transfer of value embodied in internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs). This volume provides key insights into the economistic and feminist concepts of global value transmission, the complexity of health worker migration, and the gendered and intersectional intricacies involved in the workplace integration of immigrant health care workers. The contributions to this edited collection uncover the multitude of actors who play a role in creating, transmitting, transforming, and utilizing the value embedded in international health migrants.

Craft in Biomedical Research
Craft in Biomedical Research

Author: Mianna Meskus

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-21

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1137469102

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This book explores the new ways in which biology is becoming technology. The revolutionary iPS cell technology has made it possible to turn human skin and blood cells into pluripotent stem cells, thus providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the pathophysiology of diseases, understand human developmental biology, and generate new therapies. Drawing from a rich ethnographic study, Meskus traces the making of the iPS cell technology through the perspectives of clinical translation, laboratory experimentation, and tissue donation by voluntary patients. Discussing non-human agency, the embodied and affective basis of knowledge production, and the material politics of science, the book develops the idea of an instrumentality-care continuum as a fundamental dynamic of biomedical craft. This continuum, Meskus argues, opens up a novel perspective to the commercialization and industrial-scale appropriation of human biology, and thereby to the future of ethical biomedical research.

Health, Technology and Society
Health, Technology and Society

Author: Andrew Webster

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-07-06

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9811543542

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This book celebrates and captures examples of the excellent scholarship that Palgrave’s Health, Technology, and Society Series has published since 2006, and reflects on how the field has developed over this time. As a collection of readings drawn from twenty-two books, it is organized around five themes: Innovation, Responsibility, Locus of Care, Knowledge Production, and Regulation and Governance. Structured in this way, the book gives the reader a concise but nonetheless rich guide to the core issues and debates within the field. Complementing these narratives, the original authors have provided new reflection pieces on their texts and on their current work. This then is a book which in part looks back but also looks forward to emerging issues at the intersection of health, technology, and society. It uniquely encompasses and presents a range of expertise in a novel way that is both timely and accessible for students and others new to the field.

Beautyscapes
Beautyscapes

Author: Ruth Holliday

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2019-07-04

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1526134276

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Beautyscapes explores the global phenomenon of international medical travel, focusing on patient-consumers seeking cosmetic surgery outside their home country and on those who enable them to access treatment abroad, including surgeons and facilitators. It documents the journeys of those who travel for treatment abroad, as well as the nature and power relations of the IMT industry. Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, Beautyscapes draws on key themes of interest to students and researchers interested in globalisation and mobility to explain the nature and growing popularity of cosmetic surgery tourism. Richly illustrated with ethnographic material and with the voices of those directly involved in cosmetic surgery tourism, Beautyscapes explores cosmetic surgery journeys from Australia and China to East-Asia and from the UK to Europe and North Africa.

Bioethics Beyond Altruism
Bioethics Beyond Altruism

Author: Rhonda M Shaw

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-31

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 3319555324

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This book departs from conventional bioethics approaches to consider the different moral and political economies involved in the donation and transformation of human organs, gametes, stem cells and breastmilk. Collectively, the authors draw attention to the different values associated with research and therapy on body part and tissue exchange through an examination of altruism, gift and commodity relations. They expertly discuss issues such as the bioethical conundrums around the circulation and use of human biological materials and services as well as their legal and regulatory limits, the economic benefits and health values attributed to various body parts and products, and the matter of immaterial labour and affective relations between donors, recipients and others involved in tissue provision. Based on new empirical research, this interdisciplinary collection of original and timely essays will be of interest to students and researchers in gender and cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, science and technology studies, as well as medical professionals with an interest in health and reproduction.

Digital Health and Technological Promise
Digital Health and Technological Promise

Author: Alan Petersen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-11-21

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1351780395

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What is ‘digital health’? And, what are its implications for medicine and healthcare, and for individual citizens and society? ‘Digital health’ is of growing interest to policymakers, clinicians, and businesses. It is underpinned by promise and optimism, with predictions that digital technologies and related innovations will soon ‘transform’ medicine and healthcare, and enable individuals to better manage their own health and risk and to receive a more ‘personalised’ treatment and care. Offering a sociological perspective, this book critically examines the dimensions and implications of ‘digital health’, a term that is often ill defined, but signifies the promise of technology to ‘empower’ individuals and improve their lives as well as generating efficiencies and wealth. The chapters explore relevant sociological concepts and theories; changing conceptions of the self-evident in citizens’ growing use of wearables, online behaviours and patient activism; changes in medical practices, especially precision (or ‘personalised’) medicine and growing reliance on ‘big data’ and algorithm-driven decisions; the character of the digital healthcare economy; and the perils of ‘digital health’. It is argued that, for various reasons, including the way digital technologies are designed and operate and the influence of big technology companies and other interests seeking to monetise citizens’ data, ‘digital health’ is unlikely to deliver much of what is promised. Citizens’ use of digital technologies is likened to a Faustian bargain: citizens are likely to surrender something of far greater value (their personal data) than what they obtain from their use. However, growing data activism and calls for ‘algorithmic accountability’ highlight the potential for citizens to create alternative futures—ones oriented to fulfilling human needs rather than techno-utopian visions. This ground-breaking book will provide an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand the socio-cultural and politico-economic implications of digital health.