Date/Time
Thursday
2 Oct 2014
11:00 am
Event Type
Book Launch
Charis Thompson
Chancellor's Professor and Chair of Gender & Women's Studies; Director, Chau Hoi Shuen Program in Gender & Science
David Winickoff
Associate Professor of Bioethics and Society
Hosted by the Center for Genetics and Society:
Charis Thompson interviewed by David Winickoff:
“Please join Charis Thompson and the Center for Genetics and Society for Talking Biopolitics 2014. In this live web-based interview and conversation, Charis will talk with David Winickoff – and with you – about her latest book, Good Science: The Ethical Choreography of Stem Cell Research.
Good Science (MIT Press, 2013) investigates the evolution of the controversy over human pluripotent stem cell research in the United States and proposes a new ethical approach for “good science.” Charis Thompson traces the political, ethical, and scientific developments that came together in what she characterizes as a “procurial” framing of innovation, based on concern with procurement of pluripotent cells and cell lines, a pro-cures mandate, and a proliferation of bio-curatorial practices.
Through this frame, Thompson brings light to what is not easily seen, such as the relevance of health disparities, disability justice, and militarization to stem cell research. Additionally, she highlights a shift in moral panic across the global market from concerns about brain drain to fears about “snake oil” treatments. In the final section, Thompson focuses on moving beyond substitutive subjects of research, noting the practical and ethical failures of using some humans for others, and animals for humans.
With her comprehensive investigation of fifteen years of stem cell debate and discoveries, Thompson makes a strong case that good science and good ethics are mutually reinforcing, rather than antithetical, in contemporary biomedicine.”
For more information on both the interviewee and interviewer, visit the Center for Genetics and Society’s website.