Recent lively debate about the ethical and regulatory dimensions of developments in genetics has sidelined societal and cultural aspects, which arguably are indispensable for a nuanced understanding of the complexities of the topic. Regulatory and ethical debates benefit from taking seriously this 'third dimension' of culture, which often determines the configurations and limits of the space within which scientific, ethical and legal debate can take place. To fill this gap, this volume brings together contributions exploring the mutual relationship between genetics, markets, societies and identities in genetics and genomics. It draws upon the recent interdisciplinary debate on how socio-cultural factors influence attitudes towards the usage of, and the belief in, 'genetics2.0' and shows how individual and collective identities are challenged by cultural meanings of genetics. This book will become the standard reference for everyone seeking to make sense of the controversies and shifts in the field of genetics in the second decade of the twenty-first century.
Author(s): Barbara Prainsack (editor), Silke Schicktanz (editor), Gabriele Werner-Felmayer (editor)
Series: Theory, Technology and Society
Publisher: Ashgate
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: xvi,224
Johannes Zschocke: Foreword
1 Barbara Prainsack, Silke Schicktanz and Gabriele Werner-Felmayer: Geneticising Life: A Collective Endeavour and its Challenges
Part I: Creating Identities
2 Jennifer R. Fishman and Michelle L. McGowan: Will Personal Genomic Information Transform One’s Self?
3 Josef Quitterer: The Changing Self: Philosophical Concepts of Self and Personal Identity in a Post-clinical Age of Genetics
4 Troy Duster: Ancestry Testing and DNA: Uses, Limits – and Caveat Emptor
5 Priska Gisler, Mo Diener and Luzia Hürzeler: Other Stories: Artistic Explorations of Genealogy and Identity
Part II: Sharing Knowledge
6 Paul Vanouse: The Latent Figure Protocol – A Photo-essay
7 Gabriele Werner-Felmayer: Consequences of Sequences, Codes and Messages: Artistic and Scientific Readings of Chromosomes in an Era of Consumerism
8 Sigrid Sterckx and Julian Cockbain: The Ethics of Patenting in Genetics: A Second Enclosure of the Commons?
Part III: Participating in the Social Laboratory
9 Barbara Prainsack: Understanding Participation: The ‘Citizen Science’ of Genetics
10 Gisli Palsson: LabouringMe, LabouringUs
11 Aviad E. Raz, Nitzan Rimon-Zarfaty, Julia Inthorn and Silke Schicktanz: Making Responsible Life Plans: Cultural Differences in Lay Attitudes toward Predictive Genetic Testing for Late-Onset Diseases
12 Silke Schicktanz and Friederike Kogel: Genetic Responsibility Revisited: Moral and Cultural Implications of Genetic Prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease
