Challenges of Biomedicine –Socio-Cultural Contexts, European Governance, and Bioethics
Institut für Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin
Förderung: European Commission, 6th Framework programme "Science and Society"
Laufzeit: 2004-2007
Bearbeitet von: Dr. Mark Schweda
Hintergrund
The socio-cultural background of modern biomedicine was examined in a comparative analysis of qualitative empirical data gathered in different European countries: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and Cyprus. Moreover, perspectives from Latvia and Great Britain were taken into account selectively. The emphasis of the project lies on the question how laypeople and patients view modern medicine and live with it. The interactions and interdependencies between medicine and culture were analysed along two main comparative axes. On a first level the countries involved were compared to trace different cultural approaches. Secondly, two different medical technologies, organ transplantation and postnatal genetic testing, were used as comparative examples. These two technologies raise different ethical and social problems and hence challenges for governance.
On this basis, the CoB project developed conclusions and recommendations for the academic context as well as for European and national policy makers. These address questions of European harmonisation, citizen participation and governance as well as bioethical issues.
Thematic Objectives
- Qualitative comparative research on different socio-culturally framed ways of dealing with modern biomedicine in selected European countries
- Investigation on how members of the public assess the impact of modern biomedical technologies on their body, identity, ways of knowing and social relations
- Analysis of how European citizens reflect on the socio-political consequences of modern biomedical technologies, different modes of governance as well as opportunities of public participation
- Investigation of the role of cultural concepts like identity and bodily integrity in the present bioethical discourse
- Reflection and evaluation of the consequences of the cultural plurality of moral conceptions on the debate on European bioethics
- Recommendations for the development of ethical regulations and possibilities of governing research and practise in the field of medicine and life sciences
Methodological and Theoretical Objectives
- Contribution to interdisciplinary research at the interface of bioethics, social studies of science and medical anthropology
- Advancement of qualitative comparative methods for investigating patients’ and laypeople’s attitudes towards questions of biomedicine in an international and interdisciplinary research setting
- Development of key concepts for an intercultural bioethical discourse
- Establishment and structuring of a European network for the exploration of biomedicine from an ethical and sociological point of view
Publications Regarding Focus 1: Public Approaches to (Bio)Medicalisation and Geneticisation
- K. Amelang, S. Beck, V. Anastasiadou-Christophidou, C. Constantinou, A. Johansson & S. Lundin. 2011. Learning to Eat Strawberries in a Disciplined Way: Normalization Practices Following Organ Transplantati in. Ethnologia Europaea, Vol. 41, Nr. 2, pp. 54-70.
- A. Putnina. 2011. Chapter 6. Managing Trust and Risk in New Biotechnologies: The Case of Population Genome Project and Organ Transplantation in Latvia. In: Robbins, Peter & Huzair, Farah (eds.). 2012. Exploring Central and Eastern Europe’s Biotechnology Landscape. Volume 9 of the series The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, pp. 111-129.
- P. Chavot, A. Masseran. 2008. Choisir une technologie, préférer un mode de vie ? Mises en sens des transplantations d’organes [Choose a technology, prefer a lifestyle? Making sense out of organ transplantation]. Éthique et Santé, Vol. 5, Issue 2, pp. 96–102.
- S. Schicktanz, J.W. Rieger, B. Lüttenberg. 2006. Gender Disparity in Living Kidney Transplantation: A Comparison of Global, Mid-European and German Data and their Ethical Relevance. Transplantationsmedizin, Vol. 18, pp. 30-37.
- S. Schicktanz, M. Schweda, M. Franzen. 2008. ‘In a completely different light’? – The role of 'being affected' for the epistemic perspectives and moral attitudes of patients, relatives and lay people. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, Vol. 11, pp. 57-72.
- S. Schicktanz, M. Schweda, S. Wöhlke. 2010. Gender issues in living organ donation: medical, social and ethical aspects. In: Klinge, Ineke; Wiesemann, Claudia (eds.): Sex and Gender in Biomedicine. Theories, Methedologies and Results, Göttingen.
Publications Regarding Focus 2: Public Understandings of (Techno)Science, Governance, and Participation
- S. Beck, K. Amelang. 2010. Comparison in the wild and more disciplined usages of an epistemic practice. In: Thomas Scheffer, Jörg Niewöhner: Thick Comparison. Reviving the Ethnographic Aspiration. Leiden/Boston, Brill, pp. 155–179.
- U. Felt, M. Fochler, A. Mager & P. Winkler. 2008. Visions and Versions of Governing Biomedicine: Narratives on Power Structures, Decision-making and Public Participation in the Field of Biomedical Technology in the Austrian Context. Social Studies of Science, Vol. 38, Issue 2, pp. 233-255.
- U. Felt, M. Fochler and P. Winkler. 2010. Coming to Terms with Biomedical Technologies in Different Techno-Political Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Focus Groups on Organ Transplantation and Genetic Testing in Austria, France and the Netherlands. Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 35, Issue 4, pp. 525-553.
- A. Putnina (2012). Managing Trust and Risk in New Biotechnologies: The Case of Population Genome Project and Organ Transplantation in Latvia. In: Exploring Central and Eastern Europe’s Biotechnology Landscape. Volume 9 of the series The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, pp. 111-129.
Publications Regarding Focus 3: Bioethical and Public Evaluations of Biomedicine
- H. Röcklinsberg. 2009. The Complex Use of Religion in Decisions on Organ Transplantation. J Relig Health, Vol. 48, pp. 62-78.
- den Dikken, A. 2011. Body enhancement: body images, vulnerability and moral responsibility. Utrecht University.
- M. Düwell. 2005. Sozialwissenschaften, Gesellschaftstheorie und Ethik. In: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik 10, pp. 5-22.
- M. Düwell: Needs, Capacities and Morality. Over Problems of the Liberal to Deal with the Life Sciences. In: M. Düwell et al. (eds.). 2008. The Contingent Nature of Life. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., pp. 119-130.
- N. M. Nijsingh, M. Düwell: Interdisciplinarity, applied ethics and social science research. In: Sollie, Paul, Düwell, Marcus (Eds.). Evaluating New Technologies, Volume 3 of the series The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology pp 79-92.
- S. Schicktanz. 2007. Why the way we consider the body matters – Reflections on four bioethical perspectives on the human body. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, Vol. 2, Issue 30, pp. 1-12.
- M. Schweda, S. Schicktanz. 2009. “The Spare Parts Person” – Public Moralities concerning Donation and Disposition of Organs and what Academic Bioethics can learn from them. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, Vol. 4, Issue 4, pp. 1-10.
Institutions and People Involved
- S. Beck, K. Amelang. 2010. Comparison in the wild and more disciplined usages of an epistemic practice. In: Thomas Scheffer, Jörg Niewöhner: Thick Comparison. Reviving the Ethnographic Aspiration. Leiden/Boston, Brill, pp. 155–179.
- U. Felt, M. Fochler, A. Mager & P. Winkler. 2008. Visions and Versions of Governing Biomedicine: Narratives on Power Structures, Decision-making and Public Participation in the Field of Biomedical Technology in the Austrian Context. Social Studies of Science, Vol. 38, Issue 2, pp. 233-255.
- U. Felt, M. Fochler and P. Winkler. 2010. Coming to Terms with Biomedical Technologies in Different Techno-Political Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Focus Groups on Organ Transplantation and Genetic Testing in Austria, France and the Netherlands. Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 35, Issue 4, pp. 525-553.
- A. Putnina (2012). Managing Trust and Risk in New Biotechnologies: The Case of Population Genome Project and Organ Transplantation in Latvia. In: Exploring Central and Eastern Europe’s Biotechnology Landscape. Volume 9 of the series The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, pp. 111-129.
