Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Species of Contagion

Animal-to-Human Transplantation in the Age of Emerging Infectious Disease

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ray Carr

    1. Independent Scholar, Corrimal, Australia

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers an original contribution to debates on xenotransplantation by drawing on theories of sovereignty and security
  • Traces the impact of sovereignty and security, in empirical and discursive domains
  • Comprises an insightful and thought-provoking foray into the world of xenotransplanation

Part of the book series: Health, Technology and Society (HTE)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Forms of Contagion

    • Ray Carr
    Pages 1-37

  3. 100% Pure Pigs: New Zealand and the Cultivation of Pure Auckland Island Pigs for Xenotransplantation

    • Ray Carr
    Pages 39-77

  4. Hierarchies of Valuable Life: Positioning Pigs and Primates in UK Bioethics

    • Ray Carr
    Pages 79-116

  5. Circulating Non-human Tissues: Xenotransplantation and Security in the United States

    • Ray Carr
    Pages 117-157

  6. Ecological and Organismic Body Politics: The Moratorium on Xenotransplantation in Australia

    • Ray Carr
    Pages 159-204

  7. Conclusion

    • Ray Carr
    Pages 205-215

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 217-221
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Species of Contagion examines the political and social implications of xenotransplantation for bodies, nations, and species. Scientists are demonstrating a renewed interest in developing transplants for humans with tissues from pigs, with the aid of genetic engineering techniques, immunosuppressant drugs, and novel cellular technologies. Yet, some argue that these transspecies promiscuities threaten to enable new viruses to emerge in human populations. Drawing on the later works of Foucault, this book analyses contemporary power relations in animal-to-human transplantation research, ranging across governmental regulation, scientific understandings of infectious disease, and animal ethics. While many xenotransplantation practices resonate with a security approach that renders uncertainty an inherent condition of life and encourages adaptation across species boundaries, government regulation and industry also reinscribe sovereign boundaries of bodies, species, and nations. Species of Contagion illustrates the variation in the cultural and scientific imaginaries that governments and industry bring to bear on the problematic of xenotransplantation.

Reviews

“After the recent pandemic, we desperately need comparative treatments of the politics, policies and programmes that affect human, animal and environmental health.  Species of Contagion is a compelling history of the present, chronicling the recent regulation of biomedical research and its translation into medical practice.  With its focus on xenotransplantation and zoonotic disease risks, the book contains valuable lessons for when the promise of monsters meets newly charged national and global health security frameworks.” (Steve Hinchliffe, Professor of Human Geography, University of Exeter)

“Ray Carr has given us a lucid, sophisticated and highly significant study of the contrasting regulations and ethical discourses pertaining to the practice of xenotransplantation in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States.” (Susan Merrill Squier, Brill Professor Emeritus of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Penn State University)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Independent Scholar, Corrimal, Australia

    Ray Carr

About the author

Dr Ray G Carr received his doctorate in Sociology at the University of Sydney. He also holds undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Statistics from Australian National University. He has published in Animal Studies Journal, Australian Feminist Studies, and the Australian Journal of Human Rights.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Species of Contagion

  • Book Subtitle: Animal-to-Human Transplantation in the Age of Emerging Infectious Disease

  • Authors: Ray Carr

  • Series Title: Health, Technology and Society

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8289-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-16-8288-9Published: 18 February 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-16-8291-9Published: 19 February 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-16-8289-6Published: 17 February 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2946-3386

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-3378

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 221

  • Topics: Science and Technology Studies, Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation