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

本论文研究项目将通过对美国和英国乳腺癌基因检测和专利的政策和实践发展的政治争议的案例研究，研究当代分子遗传学及其影响的政治。美国和英国的科学家在20世纪90年代宣布了乳腺癌的遗传病因学，引发了关于适当的检测方法、遗传风险、基因隐私和歧视以及基因序列专利的伦理问题的激烈辩论。这个项目将调查在这些问题上有争议的政治辩论中各种相关参与者的经验和相互作用，了解生物医学的同时建设和政治身份、合法性和专业知识的转变。该研究的比较方面鼓励探索乳腺癌遗传学发展的国家特异性，表明政治文化和全球化对有争议的政治轨迹的相对影响。研究将通过密集访谈、参与观察和文献分析进行。通过探索生物医学与政治的同步建构，本论文的研究项目将有助于科学与政治“共生”的新兴科学与技术研究。此外，它将促进我们对公众参与生物医学决策的政治的理解，探索在20世纪末和21世纪实现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，来检查遗传知识与当代社会的结合。

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.