Dissertation Research: Imagining the Genone: Politics of Breast Cancer Genetics in the United States and Great Britain

这篇论文的研究项目将通过对美国和英国乳腺癌基因检测和专利政策和实践发展的政治争论的案例研究，来考察当代分子遗传学的政治及其影响。20世纪90年代，美国和英国的科学家宣布了乳腺癌的遗传病因学，这引发了关于适当的检测方法、遗传风险、遗传隐私和歧视以及为基因序列申请专利的伦理问题的激烈辩论。这个项目将调查各种相关行为者在围绕这些问题进行的有争议的政治辩论中的经验和相互作用，了解生物医学的同时建设和政治身份、合法性和专门知识的转变。这项研究的比较方面鼓励探索乳腺癌遗传学发展中的国家特殊性，表明政治文化和全球化对有争议的政治轨迹的相对影响。研究将通过深入访谈、参与者观察和文件分析进行。通过探索生物医学与政治的同步建设，本论文的研究项目将有助于新兴的科学技术研究领域研究科学与政治的“联合生产”。此外，它将有助于我们理解公众参与生物医学决策的政治，探索在20世纪末和21世纪获得合法性和专业知识的方式。最后，这个项目提供了一个独特的机会，通过探索这些生物医学政治参与者的声音，来审查将遗传知识纳入当代社会的情况。

This dissertation research project will examine the politics regarding contemporary molecular genetics and its implications, through a case study of political controversies over development of policy and practice for breast cancer genetic testing and patenting in the United States and Great Britain. The genetic etiology of breast cancer, announced in the 1990s by scientists both in the United States and Great Britain, has stimulated active debates regarding appropriate testing practices, genetic risk, genetic privacy and discrimination, and the ethics of patenting genetic sequences. This project will investigate the experiences and interactions of a variety of relevant actors throughout contentious political debates over these issues, understanding the simultaneous construction of biomedicine and transformation of political identities, legitimacy, and expertise. The comparative aspects of the study encourages the exploration of national specificity in the development of breast cancer genetics, suggesting the relative influences of political culture and globalization on the trajectory of contentious politics. Research will be conducted through intensive interviewing, participant observation, and document analysis. By exploring the simultaneous construction of biomedicine and the polity, this dissertation research project will contribute to emerging scholarship in science and technology studies which investigates the "co-production" of science and politics. In addition, it will facilitate our understanding of the politics of public participation in biomedical policymaking, exploring the ways in which legitimacy and expertise are achieved in late 20th and 21st centuries. Finally, this project provides a unique opportunity to examine the incorporation of genetic knowledge into contemporary societies by exploring the voices of the participants in these biomedical politics.