The State of the Art Reports aimed at providing comprehensive information on the status of the political, legal, and socio-economic context of and the political, academic and media debate on biomedicine and especially transplantation medicine and post-natal genetic testing in different European national contexts. Reports were written in those member countries where further empirical research was to be conducted in following working steps, which were Austria, Cyprus, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

The reports covered a timeframe of ten years (1995-2005). They mainly based on desk based studies of official statements, laws, relevant academic and non-academic literature, grey publications, web sites and media debates. As accessibility to information especially on socio-economic aspects of organ transplantation and post-natal genetic testing, as well as on soft laws and informal practices was rather restricted, also additional expert interviews were done.


Structure of the State of the Art Reports

All reports follow a standardised structure:

• Section 1 deals with the respective national legal and regulatory framework of biomedicine, comprising not only an overview of the formal laws and regulations, but also of more informal ways of regulation, such as guidelines for the practice of genetic testing. The historical background of recent legislation was taken into account to better understand the motivations behind the respective political decisions.

• Section 2 describes the institutional structure in the field of governance of biomedicine. It includes an organigram covering the responsibilities, competences and functions in the institutional context of biomedical research and practice, and its regulation.

• Section 3 identifies the main actors in the field of governance of biomedicine, such as politicians, scientists, ethics committees, stakeholders, physician groups, and patient or disabled groups. Special further emphasis is placed on commercial companies as well as NGOs and their impact on biomedical research.

• Section 4 is concerned with the academic debate on biomedicine including ethics and social sciences. It provides information on the most important topics, positions and the nature of the debate, the disciplines involved and the relation of the academic to the public discourse. Another focus is on a description of the biomedical research landscape in the respective countries, considering major research programs and projects, sources and channels of research funding.

• Section 5 covers the media and the public discourse on biomedicine. It gives an overview over the main topics in the current public debate and important discourse events such as public scandals or debates. Where applicable, also fiction literature or film is taken into account.

• Section 6 focuses on issues of public participation. It deals with the role of participation in the respective national poitical culture in general – e.g. possibilities of referenda in the constitution, institutionalised ways of public participation – and concentrates on the specific institutions and ways of participation in the governance of biomedicine.

• Section 7 is a structured bibliography on the different thematic sections, including relevant literature, grey publications and, where possible, links to important internet sources.

Following this structure, each report comprises between 20 and 30 pages. The State of the Art Reports produced proved to be a good starting point for later analytic work. However, it also became evident in further more specialised, especially comparative analysis, that additional background investigation on specific issues was necessary.

• For further information on the Austrian State of the Art Report, please contact: Ulrike.Felt@univie.ac.at
  
• For further information on the Cypriot State of the Art Report, please contact:
  Violetta Anastasiadou: vanast@cing.ac.cy
  
• For further information on the French State of the Art Report, please contact: Anne.Masseran@univ-nancy2.fr
• For further information on the German State of the Art Report, please contact: Silke.Schicktanz@medizin.uni-goettingen.de 
• For further information on the Dutch State of the Art Report, please contact:
  Marcus Düwell: M.Duwell@uu.nl
  
• For further information on the Swedish State of the Art Report, please contact: Helena.Rocklinsberg@teol.lu.se