The Practices of Human Genetics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Modern Biological Determinism

   • Garland E. Allen

   Pages 1-23

3. Projecting Speed Genomics

   • Michael Fortun

   Pages 25-48

4. The Practices of Producing Meaning in Bioinformatics

   • Joan H. Fujimura

   Pages 49-87

5. Circulating Mice and Viruses

   • Jean-Paul Gaudilliere

   Pages 89-124

6. The Automated Laboratory

   • Peter Keating, Camille Limoges, Alberto Cambrosio

   Pages 125-142

7. Hans Nachtsheim, A Human Geneticist Under National Socialism, and the Question of Freedom of Science

   • Ute Deichmann

   Pages 143-153

8. Good Genes and Bad Genes

   • Dorothy Nelkin, M. Susan Lindee

   Pages 155-167

9. Making Decisions about Someone Else’s Offspring

   • Simone Bateman Novaes

   Pages 169-184

10. PKU Screening

    • Diane B. Paul

    Pages 185-195

11. From Butterflies to Blood

    • Doris T. Zallen

    Pages 197-216

That concern about human genetics is at the top of many lists of issues requiring intense discussion from scientific, political, social, and ethical points of view is today no surprise. It was in the spirit of attempting to establish the basis for intelligent discussion of the issues involved that a group of us gathered at a meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology in the Summer of 1995 at Brandeis University and began an exploration of these questions in earlier versions of the papers presented here. Our aim was to cross disciplines and jump national boundaries, to be catholic in the methods and approaches taken, and to bring before readers interested in the emerging issues of human genetics well-reasoned, informative, and provocative papers. The initial conference and elements of the editorial work which have followed were generously supported by the Stifterverband fUr die Deutsche Wissenschaft. We thank Professor Peter Weingart of Bielefeld University for his assistance in gaining this support. As Editors, we thank the anonymous readers who commented upon and critiqued many of the papers and in tum made each paper a more valuable contribution. We also thank the authors for their understanding and patience. Michael Fortnn Everett Mendelsohn Cambridge, MA September 1998 vii INTRODUCTION In 1986, the annual symposium at the venerable Cold Spring Harbor laboratories was devoted to the "Molecular Biology of Homo sapiens.

• DNA
• Generation
• Nation
• bioinformatics
• determinism
• eugenics
• genetics
• knowledge
• socialism

• Hampshire College, Amherst, USA

  Michael Fortun

• Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

  Everett Mendelsohn

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