För Sverige i framtiden : Bio-objektifiering av ny medicinsk teknologi

Taking Sweden into the future – Bio-objectification of new medical technology In this article, we analyze how contemporary discursive silences around new biotechnologiessuch as cybrids and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), have been enabled by earlier policyprocesses in the area, e.g. boundary work around what is human and non-human, livingand non-living, subject and object. The analysis of policy processes around xenotransplantationsand the use of human embryonic stem cells, shows that the stem cells’ and xenografts’“bio-identities” become stabilized through high expectations for the future, a lack of therapeuticpossibilities and struggles over definitions of life. The policy processes around humanembryonic stem cells and organs from other animals, are characterized by a normalizationof certain understandings of ”life”, trust in scientific progress and it’s national financial potentialsand a categorization of criticism as irrational. Through these “bio-objectificationprocesses”, debate and decision making has been moved from a political and public contextinto ethical committees and research funding bodies. The article concludes by discussingconsequences of this political non-handling of biomedical technologies and how these bioobjectscould be re-politicized