Addressing the important perspectives on xenotransplantation and human embryonic stem cell research, this book explores both the enthusiastic proponents and vehement resistance to these new biomedical technologies. Investigating the political, social, and ethical forces behind this kind of research and development, as well as the commercial actors and strong financial incentives that are necessary, these stories of hope, fear, and hype are matched by stories of success, failure, and fraud, showing how these technologies have become truly polarizing.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Background, Positions, Controversies
  • 1.1 The Rise of Molecular Medicine
  • 1.2 Aims and Limitations of the Book
  • 1.3 Theoretical Perspectives and Central Concepts
  • 1.4 The Role of the Observer
  • 1.5 Methods and Material
  • 1.6 Outline of the Book
• 2. Xenotransplantation: Development and Controversies
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 A Short History of Xenotransplantation
  • 2.3 Regulative Efforts
  • 2.4 Perv and the Call for a Worldwide Moratorium
  • 2.5 The Lobbyists: Patient Organisations and Animal Rights Activists
  • 2.6 The Controversy in the Political Arena
  • 2.7 The Boundaries of the Human Body
  • 2.8 Knockout Pigs and Some Recent Developments
• 3. The Ethics of Early Clinical Trials
  • 3.1 The Research Regime: Science versus Ethics
  • 3.2 The Baby Fae Case, or, Was Xenotransplantation Premature?
  • 3.3 The Last Primate Trials and the Risk of Viral Infections
  • 3.4 Pig Islets to Diabetes Patients: From Low-Risk Research to Perv Risk
  • 3.5 Extra-Corporal Transfusion through Pig Kidneys
  • 3.6 Going South: The ValdéSgonzáLez Case
  • 3.7 The Way Forward
• 4. Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Developments and Debates
  • 4.1 Human Embryonic Stem Cells and the Embryo
  • 4.2 The British Embryo Research Debate
  • 4.3 The Swedish Debate on Hesc Research
  • 4.4 Rhetorical Strategies
  • 4.5 A Presidential Decision and Its Consequences
  • 4.6 Avoiding the Human Embryo: Adult Stem Cells
  • 4.7 The End of Controversy? an American Epilogue
• 5. The Commercialisation of Biomedical Science
  • 5.1 The Changing Landscapes of Biomedical Research Funding
  • 5.2 The Role of Patents and the Control of Biological Material
  • 5.3 The Commercialisation of Stem Cell Research
  • 5.4 The Swedish Stem Cell Companies
  • 5.5 Commercialisation and Research Ethics
  • 5.6 Science by Press Release
  • 5.7 Science on the Run
  • 5.8 Some Concluding Remarks
• 6. Summing up: Risk, Therapies, Values, and Vested Interests
  • 6.1 The Xenotransplantation and Hesc Controversies Compared
  • 6.2 The Involvement of Commercial Interests
  • 6.3 Involving the Public: Consultations, Surveys, and Social Consent
  • 6.4 The Therapeutic Imperative and Global Inequality
• References