Creating identity with biotechnology: the xenotransplanted body as the norm

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Lundin
Keyword(s):  
Medical Technology ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Fetal Cells ◽  
Porcine Islets ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Advanced Medical Technology ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Interview Studies ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Empirical Material

One of today's great issues is how an advanced medical technology like xenotransplantation should be applied. It is well known that medicine brings not only potential but also risk. On the cultural level, xenotransplantations are equally complicated; they arouse thoughts about whether our outlook on humanity will be influenced now that modern techniques can “correct” our defective bodies. The article asks whether xenotransplantation creates new cultural meanings. That is, how do newly emerging ideas of a technologically created normality raise a set of moral questions about nature and culture, mind and body? The discussion is based on interview studies with patients suffering from diabetes and Parkinson's disease. The former have been given porcine islets, while the others have had human fetal cells transplanted into the brain; the latter are also potential recipients of xenotransplants. This empirical material becomes the basis for discussing how diseases can lead to a crisis in which it is essential—on a concrete, everyday level—to find strategies for dealing with the consequences. In this process of identity and normalization, advanced biomedicine is an important factor.

Ka mura ka muri: understandings of organ donation and transplantation in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
pp. medhum-2020-012038
Author(s):  
Rhonda Shaw ◽  
Robert Webb
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Organ Donation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Interview Studies

In this article, we refer to the separation of solid organs from the body as bio-objects. We suggest that the transfer of these bio-objects is connected to emotions and affects that carry a range of different social and cultural meanings specific to the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. The discussion draws on research findings from a series of qualitative indepth interview studies conducted from 2008 to 2013 with Māori (the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand) and Pākehā (European settler New Zealanders) concerning their views on organ donation and transplantation. Our findings show both differences and similarities between Māori and Pākehā understandings of transplantation. Nevertheless, while many Māori draw on traditional principles, values and beliefs to reflect on their experiences in relation to embodiment, gift-giving, identity and well-being, Pākehā tend to subscribe to more Western understandings of identity in terms of health and well-being, in line with international literature on the topic. Rather than reflecting individualistic notions of the body and transplantation as the endpoint of healthcare as do Pākehā, Māori views are linked to wider conceptions of family, ancestry and belonging, demonstrating how different rationalities and ontologies affect practices and understandings surrounding organ transfer technology. In the article, we focus predominantly on Māori perspectives of organ transfer, contextualising the accounts and experiences of our research participants against the backdrop of a long history of settler colonialism and health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

scholarly journals Ask and You Shall Receive: A closer look on unsolved consciousness issue

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Motavalli ◽  
◽  
Javad Mahmoudi ◽  
Alireza Majdi ◽  
Saeed Sadigh-Eteghad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Brain

Although there are numerous views about the concept of consciousness, no consensus exists regarding the meaning. However, with the aid of the latest neuroscientific developments, the misleading obstacles related to consciousness have been removed. Over the last few decades, neuroscientific efforts in determining the function of the brain and merging these findings with philosophical theories, have brought a more comprehensive perception of the notion of consciousness. In addition to metaphysical/ontological views of consciousness e.g., higher-order theories, reflexive theories, and representationalist theories, there are some brain directed topics in this matter which include but not are limited to neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), brain loop connectivity, and lateralization. This narrative review sheds light on cultural and historical aspects of consciousness in old and middle ages and introduces some of the prominent philosophical discussions related to mind and body. Also, it illustrates the correlation of brain function with states of consciousness with a focus on the roles of function and connectivity.

scholarly journals On The Verge of the Hybrid Mind

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Surjo Soekadar ◽  
Jennifer Chandler ◽  
Marcello Ienca ◽  
Christoph Bublitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Recent advances in neurotechnology allow for an increasingly tight integration of the human brain and mind with artificial cognitive systems, blending persons with technologies and creating an assemblage that we call a hybrid mind. In some ways the mind has always been a hybrid, emerging from the interaction of biology, culture (including technological artifacts) and the natural environment. However, with the emergence of neurotechnologies enabling bidirectional flows of information between the brain and AI-enabled devices, integrated into mutually adaptive assemblages, we have arrived at a point where the specific examination of this new instantiation of the hybrid mind is essential. Among the critical questions raised by this development are the effects of these devices on the user’s perception of the self, and on the user’s experience of their own mental contents. Questions arise related to the boundaries of the mind and body and whether the hardware and software that are functionally integrated with the body and mind are to be viewed as parts of the person or separate artifacts subject to different legal treatment. Other questions relate to how to attribute responsibility for actions taken as a result of the operations of a hybrid mind, as well as how to settle questions of the privacy and security of information generated and retained within a hybrid mind.

scholarly journals Racial profiling in the racial welfare state: Examining the order of policing in the Nordic region

2020 ◽  
pp. 136248062091491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Schclarek Mulinari ◽  
Suvi Keskinen
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Racial Profiling ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Nordic Region ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
Interview Studies ◽  
Stop And Search ◽  
External Migration ◽  
Empirical Material

This article builds on two interview studies on racial profiling conducted in Finland and Sweden. It examines policing practices in order to elaborate on the understanding of what we define as the ‘racial welfare state’. The analysis draws attention to the ways that bordering practices reproduce racial orders, within and beyond the nation-state. The embeddedness of the Nordic region in the western sphere, with its colonial legacies, is highlighted through the empirical material that focuses on the consequences of internal and external migration controls, as well as more general police stop-and-search practices. The study underlines the need to investigate racial profiling as a practice that enforces an imagined community based not on whiteness in general, but on Nordic whiteness in particular as the norm against which the bodies of ‘others’ are measured.

Noticing in neurology

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 427-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
A J Lees
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Clinical Reasoning ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Da Vinci ◽  
Leonardo Da Vinci ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Diagnostic Signs ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Ideal

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not seeLeonardo da VinciThe three cardinal qualities necessary for the ideal neurologist are observation, the ability to reason backwards inferentially and specialist knowledge. Modern medical technology has greatly increased the ability to diagnose and treat disease but it has also encouraged a benign variant of abulia, which is killing off the art and science of clinical reasoning. Intent gazing at the unfamiliar with old eyes or a long look at the familiar with new eyes offers the neurologist an opportunity to discover hitherto unnoticed diagnostic signs far beyond the resolution of the brain scanner and even the light microscope. While there may be nothing new under the sun, there are plenty of old things that no one has observed, which have the potential to greatly improve clinical practice.

Does advanced medical technology encourage hospitalist use and their direct employment by hospitals?

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy David ◽  
Lorens A. Helmchen ◽  
Robert A. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Medical Technology ◽  
Advanced Medical Technology

Living with an adult family member using advanced medical technology at home

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelika Fex ◽  
Gullvi Flensner ◽  
Anna-Christina Ek ◽  
Olle Söderhamn
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Advanced Medical Technology ◽  
Adult Family Member ◽  
At Home

Decisions and Responsibilities at the End of Life: Euthanasia and Clinically Assisted Death

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-245
Author(s):  
Hazel Biggs
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Ethical Duty ◽  
Advanced Medical Technology ◽  
The Absolute

The advent of advanced medical technology and its ability to prolong living and dying has, together with greater patient autonomy, inspired increasing awareness of euthanasia and assisted death. Doctors confronted by distressed patients seeking treatments, which may be construed as euthanasia, can experience a profound moral dilemma that emanates from the conflict between their ethical duty to relieve suffering, and the responsibilities imposed upon them by the law. Respect for individual autonomy is central to modem medical practice; but the absolute endorsement of the patient’s right to autonomy at the end of life may compromise the clinician’s professional and ethical integrity. This paper details the uneasy equilibrium between the rights of patients and the responsibilities of doctors at the end of life.

The Influence of Personality Traits, Health Knowledge, and Product Attributes on Intent to Purchase Taiwan's Healthcare Tourism Products

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Chih Lee
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Purchase Intent ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Product Attributes ◽  
Intent To Purchase ◽  
Advanced Medical Technology ◽  
Study Offer

In recent years, Asian countries have become committed to the development of healthcare tourism. In this study I explored the influence of the level of consumers' health knowledge involvement and product attributes on their intent to purchase healthcare tourism products available in Taiwan. The results showed that consumers' purchase intent varied according to their level of health knowledge involvement and also according to individual consumers' personality traits. The findings in this study offer references for the tourism, transportation, and medical services industries to make best use of sightseeing resources and advanced medical technology while actively marketing more attractive leisure activities to boost the economy of Taiwan.

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