STS theories of biocapital conceptualize how biomedical knowledge and capital form together. Though these formations of biocapital often are located in large urban centers, few scholars have attended to how they are transforming urban spaces and places. In this paper we argue that the twinned technological development of cells and cities concentrates economic and symbolic capital and sets in motion contentious practices we name .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrustworthy science requires research practices that center issues of ethics, equity, and inclusion. We announce the Leadership in the Equitable and Ethical Design (LEED) of Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEM) initiative to create best practices for integrating ethical expertise and fostering equitable collaboration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this essay, I argue that to create a genomics that offers more gifts than weights, central attention must be paid to questions of justice. This will require expanding bioethical imaginations so that they grasp and can respond to questions of structural inequity. It will necessitate building novel coalitions and collaborations that turn the attention of bioethical governance away from narrow individual questions such as, "Do I consent?" and toward the broader collective question, is this just? What kind of lives and collectivities are made possible? What rights and principles should govern them? The essay ends with one example of this novel coalition building arising from the Science and Justice Research Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn February 1996, the genome community met in Bermuda to formulate principles for circulating genomic data. Although it is now 20 years since the Bermuda Principles were formulated, they continue to play a central role in shaping genomic and data-sharing practices. However, since 1996, "openness" has become an increasingly complex issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAt stake in the debate about personal genomics is what kind of person can be trusted to interpret genomes. Deciding this hinges not just on determining if consumers can interpret genomic information, but on deciding which biological and medical experts (if any) can perform these interpretive acts. Understanding why personal genomics has generated such tension and attention requires bringing these struggles, over who can interpret 'the code of life', into focus.
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