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SUMMARY:The flock and the citizen - permissiveness and vulnerability in in
 ternational biological research collaboration - Dr Ayo Wahlberg\, BIOS Cen
 tre\, London School of Economics and Political Science
DTSTART:20081114T123000Z
DTEND:20081114T135500Z
UID:TALK15137@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:11611
DESCRIPTION:Biological and biomedical research have become global undertak
 ings. They increasingly involve cross-national collaborations where scient
 ists\, scientific equipment\, biological materials\, therapies\, and/or in
 formation databases are exchanged across continents and countries. Biologi
 cal samples can be procured in one place only to be cultured\, stored\, ma
 nipulated and/or biochemically/genetically analysed in another. Related in
 formation databases can be electronically transported instantaneously acro
 ss the globe. Biomedical treatments (whether pharmaceutical or cell-based)
  can be developed in one place and then transferred to another country or 
 region for clinical testing.\n\nIt has been common to analyse these develo
 pments in terms of\, on the one hand\, a kind of competitiveness of nation
 s where mechanisms of capital investment\, economic incentives and so-call
 ed 'permissive' regulatory contexts are used to encourage biotechnological
 /biomedical developments. On the other hand\, the vulnerability of human r
 esearch subjects\, especially (though not only) in resource-poor countries
 \, is highlighted as leaving many open to inducement and exploitation by m
 ultinational biotech\, pharmaceutical companies and/or university scientis
 ts. In this paper\, I will examine how an ongoing institutionalisation of 
 the field of bioethics at global and national levels contributes to the st
 abilising of the notions of 'permissiveness' and 'vulnerability'. In parti
 cular\, I will suggest that institutionalised bioethics interpellates both
  the flock (a public in need of protection from the 'slippery slope' that 
 the life sciences are seen to be balancing on) and the citizen (an individ
 ual with rights that need to be protected in the face of an exploitative b
 ioscience/bioeconomy).
LOCATION:Mond Seminar Room\, Department of Social Anthropology
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