Human life, media and market: a sociotechnical perspective of research with embryonic stem cells

Abstract

New biotechnologies of reproduction emerge nowadays as radical destabilizing agents of what we understand as human life. Within this context, research involving stem cells are on the agenda of several academic articles and major newspapers and magazines around the world. The arguments vary from a sort of pride about the emancipatory power of technology to a fear about the absence of limits to restrict undesirable advances. Amid such controversies, our proposal is, based on Actor Network Theory, to draw a map of networks that produce what we understand as human life, insofar as it seems to be unstabled by the new biotechnologies of reproduction. We followed different mediators along their deviations, in order to produce a report based on the analysis of current bioethical controversies involving, specifically, embryonic stem cell research. These controversies led to a strong connection between media, new biotechnologies of human reproduction and a market logic.