Alan Petersen

Recent rapid advances in the biosciences have led to considerable debate about the social, ethical, and legal implications of research and its applications. The mapping of the human genome, advances in cloning techniques, the harvesting of embryonic stem cells for research, increasing use of genetic testing in healthcare, and the development of large-scale genetic databases have not only generated high expectations about new diagnostics and treatments but also considerable widespread fear about their consequences. This book offers a critical appraisal of bioethics and its implications as it pertains to the fields of health and medicine and public health, with a particular emphasis on recent technological innovations as they provide a noteworthy exemplar of the power of bioethics in shaping policies, practices and notions of societal benefits. Whereas other books have tended to examine ethical dilemmas and challenges of applying ethical principles, often in relation to a limited array of issues, this book investigates the socio-political implications of bioethics discourse and practices in relation to a range of controversial (or potentially controversial) developments. Providing a benchmark for future debate and scholarly work, this volume will be of interest to policymakers, clinicians, scholars, and others who are looking for new ways of making sense and evaluating recent developments in the field of bioethics.

The Politics of Bioethics

Robin Bunton

The reception of Michel Foucault's work in the social sciences and humanities has been phenomenal. Foucault's concepts and methodology have encouraged new approaches to old problems and opened up new lines of enquiry. This book assesses the contribution of Foucault's work to research and thinking in the area of health and medicine, and shows how key researchers in the sociology of health and illness are currently engaging with his ideas. Foucault, Health and Medicine explores such important issues as: Foucault's concept of 'discourse', the critique of the 'medicalization' thesis, the analysis of the body and the self, Foucault's concept of 'bio-power' in the analysis of health education, the implications of Foucault's ideas for feminist research on embodiment and gendered subjectivities, the application of Foucault's notion of governmentality to the analysis of health policy, health promotion, and the consumption of health. Foucault, Health and Medicine offers a `state of the art' overview of Foucaldian scholarship in the area of health and medicine. It will provide a key reference for both students and researchers working in the areas of medical sociology, health policy, health promotion and feminist studies.

Foucault, Health and Medicine

Barbara L. Marshall

Antje Kampf

Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine explores the multiple socio-historical contexts surrounding men’s aging bodies in modern medicine from a global perspective. The first of its kind, it investigates the interrelated aspects of aging, masculinities and biomedicine, allowing for a timely reconsideration of the conceptualisation of aging men within the recent explosion of social science studies on men’s health and biotechnologies including anti-aging perspectives. This book discusses both healthy and diseased states of aging men in medical practices, bringing together theoretical and empirical conceptualisations. Divided into four parts it covers: Historical epistemology of aging, bodies and masculinity and the way in which the social sciences have theorised the aging body and gender. Material practices and processes by which biotechnology, medical assemblages and men’s aging bodies relate to concepts of health and illness. Aging experience and its impact upon male sexuality and identity. The importance of men’s roles and identities in care-giving situations and medical practices. Highlighting how aging men’s bodies serve as trajectories for understanding wider issues of masculinity, and the way in which men’s social status and men’s roles are made in medical cultures, this innovative volume offers a multidisciplinary dialogue between sociology of health and illness, anthropology of the body and gender studies.

Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine

Herbert Gottweis

In recent years, a number of large population-based biobanks – genetic databases that combine genetic information derived from blood samples with personal data about environment, medical history, lifestyle or genealogy – have been set up in order to study the interface between disease, and genetic and environmental factors. Unsurprisingly, these studies have sparked a good deal of controversy and the ethical and social implications have been widely debated. Biobanks: Governance in Comparative Perspective is the first book to explore the political and governance implications of biobanks in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. This book explores: the interrelated conditions needed for a biobank to be created and to exist the rise of the new bio-economy the redefinition of citizenship accompanying national biobank developments This groundbreaking book makes clear that biobanks are a phenomenon that cannot be disconnected from considerations of power, politics, and the reshaping of current practices in governance. It will be a valuable read for scholars and students of genetics, bioethics, risk, public health and the sociology of health and illness.

Governance in Comparative Perspective

Biobanks

Why is there currently such strong academic and popular interest in ‘the body’ in contemporary societies? What factors shape our conceptions of the body, its naturalness, health and normality? What is the mind-body dualism and why should it matter? This book examines these and other body questions from a critical socio-cultural perspective. In particular, it shows how conceptions of the body are affected by processes of individualization, medicalization and commodification. Chapters discuss the impact of new biomedical technologies on the notion of the natural body, efforts to reshape and perfect the body, the role of the media in ‘framing’ body issues, processes of body classification, the impact of consumerism on concepts of health, healing and self-care, and the implications of theoretical and practical efforts to ‘integrate’ mind and body. This book will be an invaluable source for those seeking to understand the social, cultural and political significance of ‘the body’ in contemporary society.

Alan Petersen

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