BIOPOLITICS, ETHICS AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

1
BIOPOLITICS, ETHICS AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

• João Arriscado Nunes
• CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS LABORATÓRIO ASSOCIADO
• FACULDADE DE ECONOMIA DA UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA
• jan_at_ces.uc.pt

2
Biopower and biopolitics

• Truth discourses about the vital character of
  living human beings
• Array of authorities considered competent to
  speak the truth
• Strategies for intervention upon collective
  existence in the name of life and health
• Modes of subjectification individuals work on
  themselves in the name of individual or
  collective life or health
• (Rabinow and Rose, 2003)

3
Postgenomic biomedicine and changing conceptions
of the biological and of biopolitics

• From deterministic to open-ended and dynamic
  conceptions of biological complexity
• From Biology as Destiny to biology as
  changeable, repairable and optimizable
  through technoscientific interventions

4
The rise of the somatic citizen

• Health as a responsibility of individuals
• Risk and susceptibility the emergence of the
  healthy, pre- or a-symptomatic ill
• Optimization and the promissory notes of
  regenerative medicine

5
Biosocialities and biocapital

• The somatic citizen and his/her attachments to
  medicine and professionals
• The emergence of new collectives based on the
  sharing of biological conditions (e.g., patient
  associations, platforms, coalitions, social
  movements in health)
• The rise of biocapital and of a new political
  economy of life itself (public and private
  support of RD, role of startups, venture
  capital, big pharma, medical-industrial complex)

6
Ethical/biopolitical challenges

• Codes vs regulation
• Regulation of stem cell research and of the use
  of human embryos in research
• Regulation of research on biomedical innovations
  involving human subjects
• (Contested) boundaries of the human
• The politics of health care in the postgenomic
  era priorities, limited resources, inequalities
  and access, protection of patients/citizens

7
Biopolitical responses

• International instruments (declarations, EU
  directives)
• Self-regulation (scientists, medical profession)
• Market regulation
• National legislation
• Bioethics committees
• Public engagement initiatives
• Collective action