This happened
In February this year, the Financial Times ran an article about genetic doping in sport, where Professor Julian Savulescu was interviewed on his views. The article's author, David Owen, begins by carefully intimating his fascination for the Ben Johnson race and Savulescu voices doubt about the value of the current approach to doping. Also, Don Catlin is quoted as saying that the real smart athletes are perfectly able to avoid the doping tests. The Stockholm meeting is also mentioned.
MEDICINE AND THE BODY POLITIC UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
21-22 SEPTEMBER 2006
INVITATION TO ATTEND AND FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS CPD APPLIED FOR
This two-day conference explores issues around the ethical and political consequences of changing technologies of life and death; the privatisation of heath care, the body and its parts; the global inequalities of health; the ethical responsiblities of professionals; the role of the pharmaceuticals; changing conceptions and ideologies of the body.
Keynote speakers:
Donna Dickenson
Conor Gearty
John Harris
Alyson Pollock
Helen Smith
Rosemary Stamp
Papers already accepted are listed below.Cost: £120 full fee; £60 one-day feeConcessions: £40 and £20 respectively
For an application form and/or inquiries contact Mel Searle: m.searle@bton.ac.ukYASMIN IBRAHIM, Brighton University Politics, epidemics and globalisation. CHRISTOPHER CHATTERTON, Cardiff UniversityMetabolic Syndrome: A real condition or just another ‘Big Pharma’ creation?
DEBORAH ANNETTS, CEO The Voluntary Euthanasia Society Why medically assisted death should be legalised.
PETER WILKIN, Brunel University The political economy of the body – lower back pain: issues in public policy.
CARMEN FRACCHIA, Birbeck College, London The Hardest Graft of All: The Miracle of the Black Leg in Early Modern Spain.
ESTELLE COHEN, University of London The Body as a Historical Category: Redefining reproduction in medicine, law and social policy in Late 19th century Britain.
ROSEMARIE HUTCHINSON, University of Brighton My body belongs to me, no one else can own it so it must be mine.
MEGAN STERN, London Metropolitan University Medicine and the Undead Body
MARK GOSBEE, Former Research Associate at The Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine Manufacturing ‘Miracles’ and the body politic: royal healing by touch and its transformations from Charles II to the Queen of Hearts.
REBECCA PRENTICE, University of Sussex Health, Injury, and the Politics of Labour in the Global Garment Industry: A Carribbean Case Study
MIKE DRYMOUSSIS, University of Sussex Commercialisation and Internationalisation of the British healthcare system
KRISTIAN POLLOCK and ALISON EDGLEY, Nottingham University Whose Death? Whose Choice? Critical perspectives on contemporary notions of a ‘good death’
SCOTT VRECKO, London School of Economics Neuropolitics and the law
JEREMY HOWICK, LSE Placebo Controls: Epistemic Virtue or Vice?
MONIQUE LANOIX, Dalhousie University, Canada Embodying or Disembodying Care? Ancillary Care Work Within Health Care
ANGELA FENWICK, University of Southampton Using bodies for their owns: a central dilemma for medical students
JULIE DOYLE and IRMI KARL, University of Brighton Shame on You: Discourses of Health, Class and Gender in the Promotion of Cosmetic Surgery Within Popular Media.
JORGE LAZAREFF, MEDNET, UCLA Global Health: The public takes precedence
JURGEN DE WISPELAERE, University College Dublin The regulation of suicide: ethics and policy
JESSAMY HARVEY, Birkbeck College, University of London Femal Virtue, National-Catholicism and Medical Authority, Constructing a Spanish Martyr of Chastity (1952).
DAVID HUNTER, University of Ulster The Challenge of Sperm Ships: The need for global regulation of medical technology.
ROBERTA BIVINS, Cardiff University A question of control: diversity, disease and post-colonial medicine in Britain.
STEPHEN WILKINSON, Keele University Choosing disability: ‘screening in’ and the welfare child.
LOGIE BARROW, University of Bremen How Not to Encourage Vaccination: some Anglo-British Boomerangs, 1853-1907-2001
ALAN HAWORTH, London Metropolitan University Freedom of Expression and Human Fallibility.
MICHAEL DILLON, Lancaster University Molecular Biopolitics: Life Assurance and Genetics
HOWARD GILBERT, University of Essex Time to reconsider the lawfulness of ritual male circumcision.
DAVID REUBI, London School of Economics “The Corrupting Power of Capitalism:” Ethics, Markets and Human Cells
DAVID LARSEN, University of Cambridge The Economics Significance of Illness in Recent British “Knowledge Based Economy” Narratives
PAUL REYNOLDS, Edge Hill University College Embodiment, Desire, Medicine and Ethics: Some Thoughts
IAIN BRASSINGTON, University of Keele Globalisation and the Moral Indefensibility of the NHS
STEVE SMITH, Newport University Social Model of Disability and Interpretation.
JESSIE FERGUSON, University of Luton Last Offices and the Changing Narrative of the Dead Body
AUBREY BLUMSOHN, Sheffield University Reflections on the pharmas
BOB BRECHER, Brighton University Embodied Politics: Healthcare Resources as a Paradigm for Thinking about the Political Issue of Distributive Justice
ESF-LiU Conference onCities and Media - Cultural Perspectives on Urban Identities in a Mediatized World Chair: Johan Fornäs (Professor of Mediated Culture, Department of Culture Studies Tema Q, Linköping University, SE) Vadstena, Sweden, 25-29 October 2006 Scientific programme and application form are accessible on-line via www.esf.org/conferences/sc06217 <http://www.esf.org/conferences/sc06217> (deadline for applications: 19 July 2006). For further information, please contact Ms. Anne-Sophie Gablin (asgablin@esf.org) from the ESF. Many thanks for passing on this announcement to your colleagues who may be interested in this event. Kind regards, Corinne Wininger - Le Moal Publicity Officer - ESF Research Conferences ESF - ESF Research Conferences 1 quai Lezay-Marnésia, BP 90015 67080 Strasbourg, Cedex Phone: +33 (0)388 76 71 35 Fax: +33 (0)388 36 69 87 clemoal@esf.org www.esf.org/conferences <http://www.esf.org/conferences>
I'm here in FACT where tonight they have the first in a programme of lectures in honour of the late Roy Stringer (first FACT Chairman). Ted Nelson is the speaker and, rather ashamedly, I am unable to attend as we have tickets booked for the theatre! I have only just joined FACT so I attribute my lack of knowledge about this lecture to this small detail. I might try to sneak in to see some of it though and it would be great to meet this leader of digital culture. PS: Join FACT.
The University of SalfordAn Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS- AUTHENTICITY 14-15 September 2006
A two-day conference at the University of Salford for postgraduate students of the arts, media and social sciences to consider current and changing perspectives on authenticity. The intention is to stimulate debate and generate fresh understandings through interdisciplinary exchange. We welcome papers in fields such as politics, philosophy, religions and theology, sociology, psychology, literature, history, classics, visual and screen studies, and the performing arts.
Possible themes include, but are not restricted to
Agencies and Bodies of authenticity Models and Creations of authenticity Practices and Enactments of authenticity Mediations and Subversions of authenticity Images and Representations of authenticity Concepts and Theories of authenticity
Abstracts of 250 words are invited for contributions of 20 minutes. We aim to provide a supportive and friendly environment where postgraduates can gain experience in presenting their work and meet fellow researchers. The conference also welcomes participants who do not wish to present.
Website for details and registration forms http://www.esri.salford.ac.uk/seminars/forthcoming/index.shtml Email for abstracts and information authenticityconference [AT] yahoo.co.uk
Deadline for abstracts 30 June 2006
Personalised Medicine: Cure or Quandary?9 May 2006 19.00 - 20.30 The Dana Centre, 165 Queen’s Gate, London SW7 5HE Nearest tubes: South Kensington or Gloucester Road
Imagine being prescribed ‘personalised’ medicines, specific to your genetic makeup. Would this mean safer, more effective treatment, or could it result in a host of ethical problems when your DNA is scanned?
*********************************************************** Personalised medicines – or ‘pharmacogenetics’ involves looking at how a person’s genetic makeup affects their response to medicines. The idea is that a simple blood test could show if a particular person is suited to a particular drug. It should be possible to work out what time of day a drug should be taken for it to work most effectively. This would mean a whole new approach to treatment: the right medicine for the right person at the right dose. It sounds sensible, if futuristic, but personalised medicines are not without complications and may not be that far away.
The potential in this field is huge, but, as with any new technology, we must be aware of consequences. Large-scale genetic tests could offer us safer, better drugs, but who should have access to the information these tests provide? If a blood test reveals that a cancer sufferer will not respond to the best drug on the market, would their chances of survival be uncertain? Should their insurers know? Will drug companies develop medicines that may benefit only a few people? Is the NHS ready for personalised medicines and can it afford them?
Join us to discuss the implications of personalised medicines. Will they usher in a new era of better healthcare, or simply bring higher costs and more ethical problems? Our speakers will help you decide.
Speakers Chairman - Clive Page, King’s College London
Jim Ritter, King’s College London Rob Kerwin, Institute of Psychiatry Katharina Wulff, Imperial College Nikolas Rose, London School of Economics Event organised by The European Dana Alliance for the Brain and the British Pharmacological Society
Booking info This event is free but places must be booked by calling 020 7942 4040 or by e-mailing tickets@danacentre.org.uk.
Ethical Communicators: inaugural conference of the Institute ofCommunication Ethics AU/NZ
1.30 - 6pm 4 July, 2006 Napier Building, University of Adelaide, Australia
Hosts: Institute of Communication Ethics (ICE), with help from the Australia New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA)
Contact: Donald Matheson, University of Canterbury, NZ - donald.matheson@canterbury.ac.nz
To launch the Australia-New Zealand branch of the Institute of Communication Ethics, a one-day conference will be held immediately before the 2006 ANZCA annual meeting with the theme, Ethical Communicators. Expressions of interest and abstracts are invited now from scholars and practitioners on the ethical dimensions of communication. Deadline: May 30, 2006.
Papers are particularly invited which explore the following areas in relation to communication practices and professions:
ethical best practice ethical codes ethical problems in practice discourse ethics public policy implications
As an interdisciplinary group, ICE invites contributions from a wide range of areas, including applied ethics, communication, computing, cultural studies, discourse studies, education, information technology, journalism, law, management communication, marketing, philosophy, psychology, public relations and sociology.
Keynote speakers are:
Prof Simon Rogerson, Director, Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, UK
Dr Edward Spence, Senior Lecturer, School of Communication, Charles Sturt University
The format will be informal and will emphasise discussion. To that end, aside from the keynotes, presenters will be asked to talk briefly (10 minutes) to their papers. Papers will be made available.
Costs is still being finalised, but will be low. We hope to make attendance free or at a nominal cost for ICE members and those who join at the event. Lunch will be provided at a small cost.
Please email donald.matheson@canterbury.ac.nz for further information or to register your interest.
See you there,
Donald Matheson
-- Dr Donald Matheson Senior Lecturer Programme in Mass Communication School of Political Science and Communication University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8020 New Zealand tel: +63 3 366 7001 ext 7888 fax: +64 3 364 2414
check out - Media Discourses (Open UP 2005) <http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/033521469X.html>
Mediated Bodies International conference 14. 15 and 16 September 2006 Faculty of Arts and Culture Maastricht University The Netherlands
CALL FOR PAPERS
There is no object of scientific investigation that is as difficult to consider a mere object as the human body. People do not merely have but are their bodies. Accordingly, there is a strong mutual relationship between scientific, esp. medical conceptions and practices and the constitution and experience of the body in other cultural domains (i.e. religion, philosophy, are, popular culture etc.) and in every day life The visualisation of the body's interior is particularly significant as it renders available what is both very nearby and inaccessible in daily experience.
The way the body is dealt with, cared for, used, or sensed changes with how its interiority and boundaries are conceived of and vice-versa. Therefore, the early modern body might be very different from that of the 21st century and the body in African medical practice might bear little resemblance to the corporeal object of European or American biomedicine.
Bodily realities and experiences are produced as much as they are discovered and expressed in the interplay of mediating discourses and practice. Medical visualisation technologies are at the heart of this interplay.The conference centers around the question of how (medical and / or technological) visualisations of the body interact with other discourses and practices in the mediation of human bodies.
This question is explored in 7 successive sessions, each dealing with specific visualisations of bodies and with particular historical or cultural contexts. For each of these sessions there is still place for several papers of 20 minutes.
If you are interested please send an abstract of your contribution to Ren E van de Vall, r.vandevall@lk.unimaas.nl, before 15 May 2006.
The International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Canada announces its 8th International Symposium for Olympic Research to be held on the Western campus from Thursday evening, 19 October through Saturday, 21 October 2006. This is a call to all scholars interested in presenting a research paper at the symposium on socioculturalOlympic themes, to submit an abstract of their study. The deadline for thesubmission of abstracts is 15 May 2006.
Please send submissions to
Robert K. Barney, Interim Director of ICOS, School of Kinesiology, University ofWestern Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A-3K7, and/or by email to<rkbarney@uwo.ca,
and/or by FAX--519-661-4148.
Notification of those submissions accepted for presentation will be rendered by 15 June 2006. Afully completed and final text of those submissions accepted forpresentation must be in the hands of the Symposium organizers by no laterthan 1 September 2006.
The fully refereed and edited Proceedings of the Symposium, entitled "Cultural Imperialism in Action---Critiques of the Global Olympic Trust: Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium for Olympic Research" will be available to participants upon arrival at the Symposium.
This notice is also an advance announcement that ICOS's 9th symposium will be held in 2008 in Beijing during the week preceding the opening of the Games of the 29th Olympiad.
On Friday 5th May, Claudio Tamburrini and Torbjorn Tannsjo launched the new Routledge title on Gene Doping. I have a chapter in this book on some of the recent debates surrounding the subject and the book covers a range of issues as yet not discussed by previous literature. The launch took place in Oxford at a project meeting of the ENHANCE project. I don't think I've ever been to a meeting where I've known quite so many people this well. It was great to catch up with old friends. I look forward to the next one.
PS: The most exciting aspect of the meeting was learning about Cludio's new movie, but more on that later!
PPS: the reference for my chapter in the book:
Miah, A. (2005). Gene Doping: The Shape of Things to Come. Genetic Technology and Sport: Ethical Questions. C. Tamburrini and T. Tannsjo. Oxon and New York, Routledge: 42-53.
INSTITUTE OF EUROPEAN CULTURAL IDENTITY STUDIES SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES
UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
International Conference
EUROPE AND ITS OTHERS. INTERPERCEPTIONS PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
6-8 JULY 2007 NEW HALL & THE GATEWAY
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
‘Europe and its Others’ is an international conference in the area of literary and film studies, covering the main European languages (English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish). It sets decipherers of Europe’s cultural traditions in interdisciplinary dialogue with historians, political scientists, social anthropologists, culture theorists, and international relationists. Through the mirroring representations of Europe’s cultural production, we aim to explore a nexus of particularly rich and complex self-and-other relationships: diverse in space, multiple in its scenes, actors, dimensions; and evolving in time. We wish to understand something about how the Other-encounters, perceptions and relationships of Europe function - a ‘poetics’ of collective, culturally formed and informed ‘identities’.
We welcome proposals for papers (a 300-word abstract) to be submitted to the Convenors of the 10 symposia that are being organised by 29 September 2006. We hope to have a definitive programme in place by November.
It is the intention of the organisers to edit a series of books, either region or discipline-based, using as a basis a selection of papers given at the conference. Each is intended to profit from, and to exploit diversely, the overarching perspectives explored.
The Conference Registration (Full Board) 6-8 July 2007 will probably be in the range of £200.00.
Please address general queries to: Conference Organiser: Dr Will Fowler, Dept. of Spanish, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL. E-mail address: wmf1@st-and.ac.uk or Professor Paul Gifford, Director, Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL. E-mail address: ppg@st-andrews.ac.uk
SYMPOSIA
Defining perceptions: getting a hold on ‘Europe’ Convenor: Prof. Paul Gifford, ppg@st-andrews.ac.uk This session retraces the movement of the entire conference, but here in the concerted search for an overview. It seeks to explore the diverse and evolving sense of 'Selfhood' implied by Europe's richly diverse gaze upon, and dealings with, its 'Others', and to question the images inscribed in their perceptions-in-return of Europe. Attending to how we see others and how they see us often throws up onto screen of awareness those implicit and invisible factors by which collective cultural personae are most profoundly formed, remembered and projected; the silent and all-conditioning realities which, in identity terms, are also the most organically constituting. Such defining perceptions may be sought and found in a broad range imaginative writing, film and cultural theory; and at all moments and phases of European culture history. The only qualifying condition of pertinence for this session is that these perceptions will lead us towards an enlarged understanding of the cultural bond that is Europe. What is 'Europeanness', 'Europeanicity'? What does it owe to objective solidarities (like those of geography, history, economic and political systems or life-style). How far is it a matter of common history and experience? How does it reflect the more elusive awareness of bonding attitudes (values, ideologies, sacralities)? What versions of are there or have their been of 'Europe'? And, as it becomes more 'creolised', is 'Europe' still a recognisable concept in the order of cultural identity?
Agonistic encounters: war, civil war, and terrorism Convenor Dr Michael Gratzke: mg43@st-andrews.ac.uk Focussing on interperceptions, this panel will explore representations of politically motivated violence within Europe and between Europeans and Non-Europeans. War, civil war and terrorism will be the cornerstones but contributions dealing with deportation, ethnic cleansing, revolutions, revolts and similar actions involving violence are equally welcome. It is the expressed aim of this panel to instigate discussion about the interconnections between aesthetic and historical/political/social issues. Papers dealing with the full range of artistic expression and aesthetic representation will be considered.
Translating Cultures: Europe and Latin America: Convenor: Dr Eleni Kefala, ek30@st-andrews.ac.uk According to Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of cultural translation, cultures, when taken out of their “original” context, are transformed and misinterpreted by the Other. This panel looks at cultural encounters and interperceptions, focusing on the dislocations, displacements and appropriation of European cultures in Latin America as well as on European perceptions of Latin America.
Where the borders lay - Europe through its neighbours’ eyes. Convenor: Dr Tanya Filosofova, tf7@st-andrews.ac.uk This interdisciplinary panel will focus on examining various aspects of cultural connections and political relations between European countries and their closest East Slavonic neighbours: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from medieval times up to modern times. The panel will examine their perception of Europe and Europeans, for example, in folklore, literature, art, films, media and popular culture as well as complex political historical contexts.
Europe and its Others: Mediterranean Interperceptions Convenor: Dr Lorna Milne, lcm2@st-andrews.ac.uk This strand of the conference invites analyses of national and cultural interperceptions across and around the Mediterranean Sea, from the Middle Ages to the present day. How is the Mediterranean itself represented in the imaginaries of the littoral cultures? What effects do such representations have on perceptions of Self and Other, seen from any given point around it? Does a degree of shared Mediterranean history and culture in any way transcend or mitigate perceptions of national Otherness, for example as between Spain and Morocco, or France and Algeria? Within the littoral nations themselves, to what extent does the possession of a Mediterranean coastline inflect the sense of national cultural identity? And do interperceptions between Mediterraneans and northern Europeans have a distinctive shape of their own? From accounts of the Crusades to the debate about Turkish membership of the EU; from archeologists' and adventure narratives to portrayals of contemporary migrations; from the imagery of 'orientalism' to the denunciation of colonial oppression, this panel will study cultural representations of Self and Other, as shaped by Mediterranean-ness, in art, text, film or other forms of discourse. Pairs or groups of papers addressing the same topic from different perspectives will be considered for inclusion: please give full details if your contribution is proposed as part of a panel.
Gender and the Other Convenor: Prof. Helen Chambers, hec@st-andrews.ac.uk Gender is widely seen as a paradigmatic signifier of Otherness: in the context of the conference theme of Interperceptions between Europe and its Others this panel will focus on the role of gender in relation to constructions of identity. Investigations of gendered discourses, whether of masculinity or femininity, will illuminate the ways in which writers and artists in other media have, consciously or otherwise, used notions of gender to represent perceptions of the relationship between themselves and Europe, or vice versa, from the Early Modern period to the present. Contributions on literary texts, film, historiography, cultural journals in any of French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish - and including comparative discussions - are invited. These will enhance our understanding of the part gender has played in cultural responses to the awareness of difference. A range of theoretical and empirical approaches is welcome.
Europe: The Alienated Self Convenor: Dr Claire Whitehead, cew12@st-andrews.ac.uk This panel will focus upon literary portrayals of madness from the eighteenth century to the present day. In post-Enlightenment Europe and beyond, depictions of alienation played a crucial role in charting reactions to the rise of rationalising civilisation. Concomitantly, developments in medical science retrieved madness from its categorisation as a purely spiritual ailment. This panel will welcome all critical approaches to alienation: historical, sociological, psychological, narratological, etc. It will also particularly encourage comparative approaches in which literary accounts of madness from one or more countries (European and non-European) are discussed.
Narratives of History and Memory: Remembering and Re-imagining the European Past(s) Across Media Convenor: Dr Belen Vidal, bivv@st-andrews.ac.uk This session seeks papers on issues of history and memory with especial reference to the diverse modes of re-imagining the past in written and visual media. In which ways has the European past been structured as a collage of fragments, and a source of dialectic tensions between Self and Other? Where can we locate the points of transnational dialogue and exchange that would allow for the construction of a shared European past? . This CFP should be of interest for researchers in the fields of literary studies, cultural studies, film and media studies, as well as to those working on approaches to history and historiography across media. Possible topics may include but are not limited to:
• The past as Other: nearness versus distance • Affective discourses around the European past • Highbrow, lowbrow, or middlebrow? The impact of popular culture versus/ in dialogue with European heritages. • Alternative histories re-written from the present • Constructing spatial and/or temporal displacement through narrative • The Other’s claims on European history • Remembering/Forgetting: Trauma and displacement • The private and the public: intimate spaces as memory spaces • National histories versus transnational memories
Europe and Its Others: Political and Cultural Influence and Interference Convenor: Dr Will Fowler, wmf1@st-andrews.ac.uk This panel is concerned with the manner in which European ideas, trends and customs, as expressed in political and cultural terms, have influenced and interfered with those of other regions. It is also interested in the way that the ideas, trends and customs of Europe's ‘others’ have been equally influential in challenging and changing Eurocentric traditions. The focus of the symposium will be inter-disciplinary and open to studies concerned with regions from across the world. Papers will typically be expected to tackle issues such as the impact of European constitutionalist thought in its former colonies, the influence of ‘peripheral’ literary movements on European fiction, or expressions of syncretism and hybridity that have surfaced both in and outside Europe.
The Macro and the Micro: Europe and the Province Convenor: Dr Rossella Riccobono, rmr8@st-andrews.ac.uk This panel will look at writers and film directors of the last thirty years who perceive themselves and their social, geographical, cultural and literary reality as regional, and therefore as marginal. Nevertheless in their work the province is often turned into a micro symbol of the larger culturally overpowering European tradition. How do these artists express their marginal self in terms of centrality? How is the representation of the micro narrated as significant in relation to the macro? Issues of identity, nomadism, voluntary exile (both linguistic, cultural, and geographical), and travel will be explored.
Last week, we stumbled on this wonderful environment, which is currently on exhibition in Liverpool, by the Metropolitan Cathedral. I have only been in and out of the city, but am spending most of my time in FACT, which, among other things has free wifi. Kudos! Not many spaces in UK cities are offering this yet, so it's some forward thinking on their part.
Following on from the previous post, I have just had a look at the Duke pages and they have a debate on the ethics of gene doping. On their poll, it is interesting to see a reasonably even split between the pro- and the anti- doping views. It's also good to see David Resnik (renowned bioethicist, someone I have referenced a lot and would like to meet) voicing his view: "I am inclined to say make it legal for some sporting activities and not for others. The bottom line here is fairness. If there is a sport that does not allow gene doping, and some people dope, they will have an unfair advantage. If a sport allows doping, then doping will not be an unfair advantage. Sports will have to decide whether to allow doping. David Resnik, NIEHS/NIH"
This is a month for articles on genetic testing for athletes. I received my newsletter 'Genome' from the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the cover story of which is titled 'Of Jocks and Genes'. Part of the article is about ACTN3, but the first part is about hypertrophic cardiomypoathy (HCM). It indicates that 'the Chichago Bulls asked 6'11'' center Eddy Currey to take a DNA test to determine if he was predisposed to' HCM. He refused. The Bulls 'benched him pending a DNA test'. It's an interesting case, particularly since a Duke physician has been following it. Concerns about privacy aplenty. Also this month, the Science Creative Quarterly has a piece titled 'Genes for Speed' by Jed Shimizu.
To conclude, Em and I have just - literally tonight - finished the final edits on a piece we have written for Sport, Education and Society about genetic testing for ability. The paper is due out this year under the following details:
Miah, A. and Rich, E. (2006) Genetic Tests for Ability? Talent Identification and the Value of an Open Future, Sport, Education and Society, in press.
Here's the pre-proof abstract.
This paper explores the prospect of genetic tests for performance in physical activity and sports practices. It investigates the terminology associated with genetics, testing, selection and ability as a means towards a socio-ethical analysis of its value within sport, education and society. Our argument suggests that genetic tests need not even be used (or widely used) as a tool for talent identification to have an impact on the way in which abilities are recognised and celebrated within sport. Just the development of these tests may consolidate discourses associated with performance and techno-scientific views of the bodies which are drawn upon in selecting, labelling and position some, rather than others, as ‘able’. The attachment of sports institutions to these technologies which may be helping to shape a theoretical and wider social construction of how performance is viewed. Our paper problematises the place that such testing may assume in the culture of physical activity and potentially physical education. In doing so, we explore how the development of these tests may impact educational practices related to sport in two keys ways. Firstly, the direct impact in terms of the ways in which the ways in which information from these tests may be used to influence the sports experience of young people, within both physical education and sports arenas. Secondly, we consider how, on a broader level, the increasing importance given to genetic science may be (re)constructing wider social understandings of the nature of ‘ability’ within sport and physical activity. Our response to these developments extends Feinberg’s thesis on an ‘open future’, which argues that selecting the characteristics of children would be unacceptable on account of it diminishing the openness of that child’s future – the range of prospects they might encounter that could lead to the flourishing of their life. On this view, we argue that genetic tests for performance might violate the child’s right to an open future and that this concern should be taken into account when considering how and whether such tests should be used.
I had hoped that this page would let me embed a You Tube video, but it doesnt seem to be happening. Instead, here is a link to some recent uploads from Torino. (LATER SAYS:hurray, thanks wordpress guys.)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWlQB9tAaDw]
A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed for The Report, Sky News' flagship news programme at 7pm. It was broadcast last Tuesday. Did anybody see it? I was at the BASEM conference at the Belfry, so missed my email from producer Joey Jones, who set up the feature. Sounds as though it was thorough.
I am half interested to see whether this gets anywhere in the Google rankings, but my main reason for blogging it is that I received a letter from Marquis today indicating that I have been nominated for inclusion into the 2007 edition.
I am reasonably familiar with the publications and so was initially very flattered. My second reaction was - quite properly for a philosopher - one of skepticism, a kind of 'really? me?' reaction.
So, I sent out an email to Mike McNamee (and subsequently Julian Savulecsu, but I havent heard back from him yet - it was only a couple of hours ago) to get his view and it was along the lines of 'Wow, is it THE Who's Who?'. I am certain that it is (this one) and I even smudged the signature on the letter to make sure it was hand written. It was. So this is where things stand. I have submitted my biography and now await a final decision.
It would be nice to believe that a nomination is already meaningful enough to feel pleased about this, which is why I put it to the public.
So, the question is as follows:
Is my candidature for inclusion into the Marquis Who's Who in the World a big deal or not? Discuss.
Violet Palmer, one of the NBA’s first female referees, is set to be the first woman to officiate an NBA playoff game.
For Palmer, 33, working the playoffs is a goal she has been working toward for years."I wasn't sure I could reach it," Palmer said. "I knew I had the ability but this is the top of the pedestal for me."
I met Jude for the first time in August 2004 at the Athens Olympic Games, where she invited Beatriz and I to a luncheon hosted by the British Olympic Association. Beatriz had already been advising 2012 by then. Jude is Chair of the Ceremonies, Culture and Education committee at London 2012 and was our official link on July 7, 2005, when the decision was announced. Some weeks before this, she spoke at a conference in University of Glasgow just before Singapore set up. This meeting was set up by Beatriz and she and I both spoke about the relationship between culture and the Olympics, which also launched our online magazine for this subject, 'Culture at the Olympics'. Since the successful bid, Jude is also now Directing the South Bank Institute. I last saw Jude in Torino for the Olympic Winter Games.
Jude Kelly with Beatriz Garcia in Torino
I had the pleasure of meeting Max first at some Hastings Center project meetings in 2002 and 2003. I met Max again in Barcelona for the Bioethics conference in 2005.He has written extensively on medical law and ethics and has included mentions of Sport related cases over the years. In recent years, he has focused on Genetic Enhancement as a core concern and his new project with others at Case Western Reserve:
CLEVELAND - - A Case Western Reserve University law professor has been awarded a $773,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop guidelines for the use of human subjects in what could be the next frontier in medical technology – genetic enhancement.Maxwell Mehlman, Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law, director of the Law-Medicine Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and professor of bioethics in the Case School of Medicine, will lead a team of law professors, physicians, and bioethicists in a two-year project to develop standards for tests on human subjects in research that involves the use of genetic technologies to enhance "normal" individuals – to make them smarter, stronger, or better-looking.
"Over the past half-century or so we have developed elaborate rules protecting human subjects in medical testing," Mehlman said. "The problem is that the rules were all designed with therapeutic goals in mind. The question is, are these safeguards appropriate to govern testing for non-therapeutic enhancements, where the measurement and valuation of the benefits is different from therapeutic testing?"
The project's specific aims are to:
The project is the first major research grant received in connection with the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law (CGREAL) at Case, which is one of four university centers recognized by the NIH for excellence in work on the ethical, legal, and social implications of the Human Genome Project. Mehlman is a research coordinator and director of public policy for CGREAL.
"We are very pleased and proud that the NIH has chosen to award this grant to Professor Mehlman and the Law-Medicine Center to begin exploring new issues in health law and bioethics," said Gerald Korngold, dean and McCurdy Professor of Law. "Among the reasons that the Law-Medicine Center is so highly regarded is that it undertakes important new research like this."
Mehlman said the need for, and importance of, developing rules for enhancement research is growing rapidly, thanks to the ever-increasing use of gene-based diagnostic and therapeutic technology. "It's obvious that many of the genetic-based techniques used for diagnosis and treatment can also be used for enhancements," he said.
He noted that substances such as human growth hormone and erythropoietin (a substance which controls the body's production of red blood cells and can be used to enhance athletic performance) are already available. "Given that these technologies are already being developed, if we don't have legitimate, approved ways of conducting research it will just go underground, like steroid use in baseball, where players are essentially acting as their own guinea pigs," Mehlman said.
An additional reason for developing guidelines governing genetic enhancement is that their absence may discourage institutions from conducting formal research.
Other members of the research team include:
