Title Biomedical odysseys : fetal cell experiments from cyberspace to China / Priscilla Song

Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2017]

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Description 1 online resource Series Princeton studies in culture and technology Princeton studies in culture and technology. Contents Introduction -- part I. Online mediations -- Interlude : planet paralyzed -- Mobilizing the paralyzed online -- Cyberanatomies of hope -- Where the virtual becomes visceral -- part II. Chinese experiments -- Interlude : ode to olfactory ensheathing cells -- Medical entrepreneurs -- Borderline tactics -- part III. Heterogeneous evidence -- Interlude : clinical outcomes -- Seeking truth from facts -- i-witnessing -- Epilogue : on the cutting edge Summary Thousands of people from more than eighty countries have traveled to China since 2001 to undergo fetal cell transplantation. Galvanized by the potential of stem and fetal cells to regenerate damaged neurons and restore lost bodily functions, people grappling with paralysis and neurodegenerative disorders have ignored the warnings of doctors and scientists back home in order to stake their futures on a Chinese experiment. Biomedical Odysseys looks at why and how these individuals have entrusted their lives to Chinese neurosurgeons operating on the forefront of experimental medicine, in a world where technologies and risks move faster than laws can keep pace. Priscilla Song shows how cutting-edge medicine is not just about the latest advances in biomedical science but also encompasses transformations in online patient activism, surgical intervention, and borderline experiments in health care bureaucracy. Bringing together a decade of ethnographic research in hospital wards, laboratories, and online patient discussion forums, Song opens up important theoretical and methodological horizons in the anthropology of science, technology, and medicine. She illuminates how poignant journeys in search of fetal cell cures become tangled in complex webs of digital mediation, the entrepreneurial logics of postsocialist medicine, and fraught debates about the ethics of clinical experimentation. Using innovative methods to track the border-crossing quests of Chinese clinicians and their patients from around the world, Biomedical Odysseys is the first book to map the transnational life of fetal cell therapies Analysis ALS CareCure China Chinese clinicians Chinese medicine Chinese neurosurgeons Dr. Huang Hongyun Huang Hongyun amyotrophic lateral sclerosis biomediation biomedical practice biomedical research protocols biomedical science biomedicine chronicity clinical experimentation cybersociality experimental medicine experimental medicines experimental surgery experimental therapy experimental treatment fetal cell transplantation foreign patients hope illness institutional practice market socialism medical entrepreneurialism medical entrepreneurs medical practice neurodegenerative condition neurodegenerative disorders neurosurgeon olfactory ensheathing cells olfactory ensheathing glia online discussion forum paralysis patient activism regenerative medicine spinal cord injuries spinal cord injury surgical intervention technonationalism transplantation Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject Stem cells -- Research -- China Hematopoietic stem cells -- Transplantation -- China Medical ethics -- China Human Embryonic Stem Cells -- transplantation Medical Tourism -- psychology Therapies, Investigational -- ethics HEALTH & FITNESS -- Diseases -- General. MEDICAL -- Clinical Medicine. MEDICAL -- Diseases. MEDICAL -- Evidence-Based Medicine. MEDICAL -- Internal Medicine. MEDICAL -- Ethics. Hematopoietic stem cells -- Transplantation Medical ethics Stem cells -- Research Medizinische Ethik Periphere Stammzellentransplantation China China Form Electronic book ISBN 1400885280 9781400885282

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