| Funded by
the European Union within the
6th Framework Programme „Science &
Society“
Recent developments
in the field of biomedicine do not
only constitute a challenge for
the health care systems of modern
societies. They also have a profound
impact on the core concepts of individual
and collective life. The corresponding
changes of individual and collective
identities take place within the
framework of different historically
shaped national conditions and traditions.
This leads to ways of dealing with
biomedicine that vary between cultures
and to different perspectives on
chances and risks.
This interdisciplinary
project aims at exploring the interrelation
between socio-cultural conditions
and ethical and legal arguments
of medical research and practice.
It poses the question to what extent
concepts of identity on the cultural,
bioethical and political level are
influenced by biomedicine and, conversely,
shape and regulate the medical practice
themselves.
The socio-cultural
background of modern biomedicine
will be examined using a comparison
of different European countries:
Germany, France, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Austria and Cyprus. Moreover,
data from Latvia and Great Britain
will be taken into account selectively.
The emphasis of the project lies
on the question how laypeople and
patients view modern medicine and
live with it. Thus, the prevailing,
expert-centred perspective on biomedicine
and its ethical challenges will
be elaborated upon. The interactions
and interdependencies between medicine
and culture will be analysed comparatively
considering organ transplantation
and postnatal genetic testing as
examples.
Thematic objectives:
• Comparative research
on different socio-culturally framed
ways of dealing with modern biomedicine
in selected European countries. One
question will be which forms of medicalisation,
geneticisation and change of body
concepts and individual identities
can be detected.
• Reflection of possibilities
for the participation of laypeople
and patients in the process of shaping
modern biomedicine (e.g. with reference
to the relation between understanding
of science, participation and regulation
resp. shaping of medical practice).
• Exploration of the
role of cultural concepts of identity
and integrity for the bioethical discourse,
as well as political and ethical reflection
on the possibilities of public participation
and collective autonomy in the context
of biomedicine.
• Development of key
concepts for the reflection and evaluation
of ways of dealing with the plurality
of different conceptions of morality
and their consequences for the pan-European
debate on bioethics.
• Recommendations for
the development of authoritative ethical
regulations and possibilities of governing
research in the field of medicine
and life sciences.
Methodological and theoretical
objectives:
• Advancement of interdisciplinary
research at the interface of bioethics,
social sciences and theory of science.
• Advancement of qualitative
methods for investigating patients’
and laypeople’s attitudes towards
and ways of dealing with questions
of biomedicine in an interdisciplinary
comparative approach.
• Development of key
concepts for an intercultural bioethical
discourse.
• Establishment and
structuring of a European network
for the exploration of biomedicine
from an ethical and sociological point
of view.
Project
phases:
The project
consists of three work stages:
1. Reconstruction:
In the first part of the project,
the ethical, legal and sociological
state of the art concerning organ
transplantation and postnatal genetic
testing (e.g. in the context of
breast cancer prevention) will be
reconstructed as well as the country-specific
framework of the ethical, legal
and political discourse (exemplarily
in Austria, Cyprus, Germany, France,
Sweden and the Netherlands). Qualitative
empirical research on how biomedical
options are dealt with and on attitudes
of patients and laypeople towards
biomedicine will be carried out
by means of group discussions. This
will allow for a differentiated
insight in the different structures
of argumentation and opinions of
groups of laypeople. Additionally,
there will be qualitative ethnological
interviews with laypeople and patients
and long-term ethnographic observations
in the respective countries. Thus
the reconstruction of medical practices
with regards to the respective ethical,
legal and economic standards they
establish will come to the fore.
2. Analysis: In the
second phase of the project, a country-specific
and a comparative cross-national
analysis of the relation and the
interactions between laypeople/patients
and science will take place. The
forms of cultivating identity and
dealing with bodily integrity will
be analysed as well. Moreover, a
detailed examination of the interdependency
of socio-cultural identity and biomedical
practice will be carried through
in the framework of three sub-projects
focusing on different aspects. These
sub-projects take up the medical,
ethical and legal discussions in
the single countries and reflect
them in the light of the results
from the empirical investigations.
• Sub-project 1 will
focus on forms and effects of the
so called geneticisation and medicalisation
from the point of view of science
and technology studies and will trace
their effects on concepts of body,
gender and disease in different countries.
• Sub-project 2 will
not only examine - against the background
of discussions about ñPublic Understanding
of Science’ - the positioning of laypeople
towards biomedical knowledge. It will
also investigate their views on the
regulation of science and on possible
forms of public participation in decision-making
processes of science policy in this
field.
• Sub-project 3 will
be concerned with specific bioethical,
religious, political and ethical aspects
of the participation of laypeople
and patients in decisions of research
policy and with the conditions for
an intercultural discourse on bioethics.
3. Evaluation and
practical-ethical consequences:
In the last part of the project,
the synopsis of the single aspects
will generate an overall perspective.
The analyses of the interfaces between
cultural views on biomedicine, bioethical
reflection and political regulation
from the sub-projects 1, 2 and 3
will be scanned for similarities
and differences between the different
countries and cultures. On this
basis, a concluding discussion will
address the question to what extent
a reasonable way of dealing with
plurality and cultural diversity
in the context of the biomedical
practice in Europe can be combined
with conceptions of authoritative
and unified European standards and
forms of regulation. At the same
time, possibilities and limits of
participation in bioethical issues
on local and European level shall
be discussed in a normative and
practical perspective.
Timetable
and Milestones:
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