În acest articol încerc să argumentez opinia că, așa cum este definită eugenia, este foarte dificil de făcut o diferențiere clară între știință (medicină, ingineria genetică) și eugenie. Și de stabilit o linie peste care ingineria genetică nu ar trebui să treacă, conform unor norme morale, juridice și religioase. Atâta timp cât acceptăm ajutorul geneticii în găsirea unor modalități de combatere a cancerului, diabetului sau HIV, acceptăm în mod implicit și eugenia pozitivă, conform definiției actuale. Și atâta timp cât acceptăm (...) screening-ul genetic, și intervenții asupra fătului nenăscut, sau avortul, acceptăm în mod implicit și eugenia negativă. În plus, la nivel de guverne, deși oficial eugenia este repudiată, ea a fost legalizată în foarte multe țări până de curând, și încă mai este acceptată și legalizată, chiar dacă în forme mai subtile, și în prezent. În Introducere definesc termenul și modurile de clasificare. Urmează Istoria eugeniei pornind din perioada antică, introducerea eugeniei de Francis Galton, practica eugeniei ca politică de stat în diverse țări, și eugenia actuală (eugenia liberală). Analizez apoi diverse probleme ridicate de Etica eugeniei liberale, și am dezvoltat o secțiune aparte pentru Viitorul eugeniei, cu accent pe proiectul genomului uman. În final, în secțiunea Concluzii expun opiniile personale cu privire la practica actuală a eugeniei. Am folosit ca surse principale de investigație articolele lui Kenneth M. Ludmerer, ”American Geneticists and the Eugenics Movement: 1905-1935”, Kathy J. Cooke, ”Duty or Dream? Edwin G. Conklin's Critique of Eugenics and Support for American Individualism”, Jonathan Anomaly, ”Defending Eugenics”, John R. Harding Jr. ”Beyond Abortion: Human Genetics and the New Eugenics”, Michael Boulter, ”Bloomsbury Scientists”, Chapter Title: The rise of eugenics, 1901–14, Michael Ruse and Edward O. Wilson, ”Moral Philosophy as Applied Science” și Goering, Sara, "Eugenics". (shrink)

There is a growing interest among scientists and the lay public alike in using the South American psychedelic brew, ayahuasca, to treat psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety. Such a practice is controversial due to a style of reasoning within conventional psychiatry that sees psychedelic-induced modified states of consciousness as pathological. This article analyzes the academic literature on ayahuasca's psychological effects to determine how this style of reasoning is shaping formal scientific discourse on ayahuasca's therapeutic potential as a treatment for (...) depression and anxiety. Findings from these publications suggest that different kinds of experiments are differentially affected by this style of reasoning but can nonetheless indicate some potential therapeutic utility of the ayahuasca-induced modified state of consciousness. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which conventional psychiatry's dominant style of reasoning about psychedelic modified states of consciousness could be reconsidered. (shrink)

Going through reproductive experiences (especially pregnancy and childbirth) in contemporary Western societies almost inevitably involves interaction with medical practitioners and various medical technologies in institutional context. This has important consequences for women as embodied subjects. A critical appraisal of these consequences—coming dominantly from feminist scholarship—relied on a problematic theory of both technology and the subject, which are in contemporary approaches no longer considered as given, coherent and well individualized wholes, but as complex constellations that are locally situated and that can (...) only be described empirically. In this study, we will be relying on the developments in phenomenological theory to reconceptualize women as technologically mediated embodied subjects and on the new paradigms in philosophy of technology and STS to reconstruct medical technology as situated—with the aim of reconceptualizing their relationship and exploring different possibilities for the mediating role of medical technology. It will be argued that technologization of female reproductive processes and alienating consequences for women are not necessary or directly interrelated. The role of technology varies from case to case and depends mainly on the nontechnological and relational aspects of institutional context, in which medical practitioners play a decisive role. (shrink)

Anti-aging medicine has emerged in the past two decades as both a medical practice and scientific objective largely aimed at intervening into the process of aging itself rather than its “associated” diseases. This has provoked a both excitement and concern in bioethical deliberations on the meaning and potential impact of an effective intervention. In this article, I examine the different ways in which bioethicists, other social scientists, and anti-aging proponents frame anti-aging goals, in particular, the construction of immortality as its (...) implicit and explicit aim. This research is based upon over 9 years of anthropological, ethnographic interview- and observation-based research in the field and draws substantially from the US President’s Council on Bioethics’ deliberations on this topic as well as from interview data and other publications/discussion on anti-aging medicine. I argue that while the framework of life and death provide the primary structure for many bioethical and social science critiques of anti-aging medicine, many if not most anti-aging practitioners, researchers, and advocates employ the alternative structure of health and pain to orient their work. These divergent orientations of life/death and health/pain beget competing conversations around anti-aging medicine; including voices from the front lines of anti-aging practice complicate bioethical critiques and ultimately beg different questions. Positioning the painful, physiological decline of aging as the ultimate adversary rather than death challenges traditional models of biomedical intervention based on “nature” and “disease” constructions. (shrink)

Along with anatomical dissection, attendance at hospital autopsies has historically been seen as an essential part of medical education. While the use of the dead body for teaching purposes is losing favour in Australian medical schools, this shift is preceded by a significant decline in the rate of autopsies nationwide (and internationally). The decline of the autopsy has particular implications for pathology training where the capacity to perform an autopsy is a requirement. Rather than join the debates in medical literature (...) about the merits of these shifts, this article goes behind the scenes of a hospital mortuary to study autopsy training and practice from the perspective of those who undertake it. The article first introduces the discipline of pathology—‘the science of medicine’—which is built upon centuries of post-mortem study and establishes the fact of the disappearing autopsy. The article then draws upon data from anthropological fieldwork in a Department of Anatomical Pathology to discuss some of the ways trainees manage the work of cutting up the dead. Concepts such as detachment, immersion and disciplinary practice are covered in during this unveiling of everyday practice in a hospital mortuary. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo discute a divisão do trabalho científico entre pesquisadores seniores e juniores em um centro de pesquisa brasileiro de genética humana e médica. Partindo do debate contemporâneo sobre a progressiva imbricação entre ciência e tecnologia - com progressiva fusão entre ambas, que evoca noções como a de tecnociência - é possível verificar, na subárea específica, velocidades crescentes na produção de dados, que pressionam os pesquisadores de maneiras distintas, seja pelo crescente custo das inovações tecnológicas, seja pela necessidade de (...) métodos mais complexos para a análise. Nesse contexto, analiso questões relativas à especialização do trabalho científico, à separação entre concepção e execução, e às transformações correlatas na formação de novos pesquisadores. Parte-se do pressuposto teórico-metodológico de que a atividade científica não pode ser tratada de forma homogênea, existindo configurações distintas de acordo com o espaço disciplinar, a organização institucional e a tradição científica local, entendida enquanto empreendimento historicamente enraizado e social e culturalmente contingente. ABSTRACT The article discusses the division of scientific labour among senior and junior researchers in a Brazilian research center for human and medical genetics. Starting with the contemporary debate on the progressive intertwining of science and technology - with progressive fusion of both, evoking notions such as technoscience - it is possible to verify, in this specific subarea, rising speed in data production that pressure scientists in different manners: through the rising cost of technological innovations and through the necessity for more complex methods of analysis. In this context I analyze issues concerning the specialization of scientific work, the separation between conception and execution as well as correlate changes in the formation of new researchers. The theoretical-methodological pressupposition is that scientific activity cannot be treated in a homogeneous way, and that there exist distinct configurations according to the disciplinary space, the institucional organization and local scientific tradition, understood as a historically rooted and socially and culturally contingent undertaking. (shrink)