Xenotransplantation: Risk Identities And The Human / Non Human Interface
L218 25 2044
Goldsmith's College & University Of York
Dr M Michael & Dr N Brown
January 2001 - December 2003
Website
Abstract
The research examines how various risks associated with Xenotransplantation (XTP - the use of nonhuman cells and organs in human transplantation) are negotiated between constituencies, reflecting and mediating changing formulations of the human/nonhuman interface. Four analytical themes structure the project: the potentially disparate roles of disciplinary 'expert' discourse; the implications of distinctions made between 'public' and 'expert'; the temporal dynamics of risk; and models of regulatory governance. The principal research instruments are focus group and qualitative interview methodologies. Data will be subject to qualitative software analysis. The research dissemination rationale includes a users' forum, internet conference and web survey.
Summary
Background
A major part of modern health innovation is the production of relatively novel life forms through cloning, DNA recombination and transgenics. These new organisms involve both risks and opportunities. Few technologies better illustrate these tendencies and tensions than xenotransplantation - the use of usually genetically modified nonhuman live cells, tissues and organs in human transplantation. The central questions addressed in this research concern the effect xenotransplantation has upon our traditional distinctions between what is human and what is nonhuman (animal), and the repercussions for understandings and assessments of risk. As such, our aim is to explore the ways in which a range of constituencies involved with xenotransplantation - scientists, regulators, publics - engage in negotiations over, and surveillance of, the relevant risks.
Research Design
The research is structured around four themes:
a. Risk and Expertise -here we examine the way that different biomedical
disciplines negotiate over the nature and extent of opportunities and risks
associated with xenotransplantation;
b. Science, Culture and Risk Identities - here we consider how various actors
distinguish between what is scientific and what is not in order to foreground
or background particular risks, or to distribute identities, values or rights;
c. Time and Risk Identities - here we analyse, on the one hand, how the
understandings of xenotranplantation and risk fluctuate over time, and on
the other hand, the assumptions about time (e.g. duration, latency, timing)
that inform such understandings.
d. Regulation and Xenotransplantation - here we focus on the ways in which
the process of regulation is shaped by, but also shapes, the preceding aspects
and contexts of xenotransplantation.
We will address these themes using in the following ways: ongoing scrutiny of the representation of xenotransplantation in various media; interviews with commercial and public researchers, domestic regulatory actors, and representatives from NGOs (including patient advocacy & animal advocacy organisations); focus groups with currently or potentially interested publics including patients and/or family/carers; focus groups with 'neutral' publics.
Policy and Academic Implications
In examining xenotransplantation through a broad spectrum of actors and themes, a core objective is to set out how risk perception is related to shifting identification with experts and non-experts, humans and nonhumans, regulators and advocates. This will enable us to contribute to current discussions about the nature of citizen participation in the regulation of innovative health technologies (and of novel technologies in general). In particular it will throw light on the public status of regulatory mechanisms, and generate suggestions as to how these might be better designed to be sensitive to the variable voice of multiple constituencies. In addition, we aim to contribute to continuing academic debates on the cultural role risk, identity and animals in contemporary society.
Contacts
Outputs
Research Findings
Findings are available here - pdf
Journal Papers
Brown, N; Michael, M. Switching Between Science and Culture in Transpecies Transplantation. Science, Technology and Human Values. 26 (1) pp3-22. 2001.
Brown, N; Michael, M. Transgenics, Uncertainty and Public Credibility. Transgenic Research. 10 (4) pp 279-293. 2001.
Michael, M. Technoscientific Bespoking: Animals, Publics and the New Genetics. New Genetics and Society. 2001.
Conference Papers
Brown, N; Michael, M. (Oral) Xenotransplantation: Risk Identies and the Human/Non Human Interface. Departmental Seminar Series. 2001, University College, London.
Brown, S. (Oral) Xenotransplantation: Risk Identies and the Human/Non Human Interface. Department of Sociology Seminar Series. 2001, Goldsmiths College, London.
Michael, M. (Oral) Communicating Genes: From "Science and Society" to "Ethno-epistemics". Communicating Health and New Genetics. 2001, Abo Akademi, Turku.
Brown, N; Michael, M. (Oral) Xenotransplantation: Risk Identies and the Human/Non Human Interface. 4S. 2001, MIT, Boston, USA.
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