Global Morality and Life Science Practices in Asia

"Universalistic claims about the politics of life are challenged by this ambitious book on actual life science practices in Asia.

Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner, sometimes with Asian co-authors, has gathered together case studies on the practice of human population genomics, reproductive medicine, stem cells research in the region. Drawing on ethnographic study of labs and clinics in Japan, China, S. Korea, and India, the book presents each case study as shaped by a particular "life assemblage" of technological, moral, and political forces in the country. Asian scientists, the book argues, are designing new experiments in the midst of conflicting moral and economic goals of science development, thus forming "local" conditions of life governance.

This volume is an ideal textbook that expands our understanding of how Asian sites have become global players in configuring the ethics and the politics of the life sciences today." - Aihwa Ong, Professor of Socio-cultural Anthropology, Berkeley University, US.

"In this book Sleeboom-Faulkner brings together her extensive field experience in China, India and Japan with a comprehensive overview of recent theoretical approaches to the growth of biotechnology and bioethics. The result is an illuminating account of local engagement with novel, life-changing technologies in contexts and constituencies very different from those found in the West. Around 17 well-argued case studies, an argument is developed about the ways in which bioethical capacity is being built in step with biotechnological developments across Asia. Through a careful analysis of the many voices that the ethics of the life sciences bring into play, the book focuses attention on contests and controversies over authority that arise in different economic, political and cultural settings, and how these determine what constitutes a 'life worth living'. This analysis succeeds in exposing the fine grain that lies beneath the universal rhetoric of science, technology and bioethics, and is something of a landmark in this important and burgeoning field." Bob Simpson, Professor of Anthropology, University of Durham, UK.