Health Law Seminar Series
Upcoming Seminars
Topic: Sociological reflections on ethics, embryonic stem cells and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis
Date: 26th June 2007 1:00PM
Location: Minter Ellison Room
Speaker: Professor Steven Wainwright & Professor Clare Williams King’s College London, University of London
In this seminar we draw upon our recent and ongoing research projects on ‘the embryo’. We discuss the problems and prospects of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, particularly the interactions between the lab and the clinic. We also discuss practitioners’ views on the ethical issues of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). We begin with an examination of some of the key differences between philosophical and empirical approaches to ethics and we outline how the concept of ‘boundary-work’ illuminates ethics, the embryo, hESC and PGD. We then explore the ethical views of scientists from two other social science perspectives: firstly, through the framework of Pierre Bourdieu – and particularly the idea of ethical capital in the field of science. Secondly, we explore ethical landscapes in stem cell research through a geographies of science approach. We then bring these ideas together and argue that a ‘Bourdieusian Geographies’ perspective is helpful in understanding new medical technologies as moral economies. We illustrate this idea of ‘moral connections between worlds’ through a discussion of what has been heralded as a ‘new paradigm in biomedicine’, the ‘disease-in-a-dish’ approach which is beginning to link the worlds of human embryonic stem cells and PGD. We conclude our seminar by raising a set of broader ethical and social issues that are often overlooked in bioethical debates on the embryo, PGD and stem cells.
Past seminars
The Centre runs a regular Health Law Seminar Series.
Recent seminars includes:
- Medical errors and Medical Negligence Litigation - 20th April 2005
- Tobacco Regulation, Policy and Litigation: Developments in US, Australian and International Law - 14th July 2005
- Expert Evidence in Health Law - 1st November 2005
If you would like to be included on our mailing list to receive details about forthcoming seminars and events please contact Val Carey