What is 'legal' about bioethics? What are the ideas and artefacts that bioethics encompasses, and how are they related to law? What is the role of law in bioethics? In this work, Calvin Ho attempts to address these questions in the context of the governance of human pluripotent stem cell research. In essence, he argues that the hybridization of law, through processes, devices and techniques of juridification, has helped to constitute bioethics as a public sphere and an emergent civic epistemology.Drawing on his multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and on Actor-Network-Theory, Ho explains how the law has, through bioethics, contributed to the scientific and public understanding of human pluripotent stem cell research and its artefacts, particularly the embryo and human-animal combinations. Although the focus of his work is on bioethical developments in Singapore over a period of more than 15 years, parallel developments in key jurisdictions (especially the United States of America and the United Kingdom) and in international science policy are also evaluated. It is through appreciating how it has progressed that bioethics will be better able to engage with future challenges presented by advances in human embryo research and gene editing techniques, among others.

What is 'legal' about bioethics? What are the ideas and artefacts that bioethics encompasses, and how are they related to law? What is the role of law in bioethics? In this work, Calvin Ho attempts to address these questions in the context of the governance of human pluripotent stem cell research. In essence, he argues that the hybridization of law, through processes, devices and techniques of juridification, has helped to constitute bioethics as a public sphere and an emergent civic epistemology.Drawing on his multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and on Actor-Network-Theory, Ho explains how the law has, through bioethics, contributed to the scientific and public understanding of human pluripotent stem cell research and its artefacts, particularly the embryo and human-animal combinations. Although the focus of his work is on bioethical developments in Singapore over a period of more than 15 years, parallel developments in key jurisdictions (especially the United States of America and the United Kingdom) and in international science policy are also evaluated. It is through appreciating how it has progressed that bioethics will be better able to engage with future challenges presented by advances in human embryo research and gene editing techniques, among others.

This book provides an analysis of the ways in which the BAC has established an ethical framework for biomedical research in Singapore, following the launch of the Biomedical Sciences Initiative by the Singapore Government. The editors and authors have an intimate knowledge of the working of the BAC, and the focus of the book includes the ways in which international forces have influenced the form and substance of bioethics in Singapore. Together, the authors offer a comparative account of the institutionalisation of biomedical research ethics in Singapore, considered in the wider context of international regulatory efforts. The book reviews the work of the BAC by placing it within the broader cultural, social and political discourses that have emerged in relation to the life sciences since the turn of the 21st century. This book is not primarily intended to be a retrospect or an appraisal of the contribution of the BAC, though this is one aspect of it. Rather, the main intention is to make a substantive contribution to the rapidly emerging field of bioethics. Ethical discussions in the book include consideration of stem cell research and cloning, genetics and research with human participants, and focus on likely future developments as well as the past.Many of the contributors of the book have been personally involved in this work, and hence they write with an authoritative first-hand knowledge that scholars in bioethics and public policy may appreciate. As indicated above, the book also explains the way in which ethics and science - international and local - have interacted in a policy setting. Scholars and policy makers may find the Singaporean experience to be a valuable resource, as the approach has been to make the ethical governance of research in Singapore consistent with international best practice while observing the requirements of a properly localised application of universally accepted principles. In addition, at least three chapters (the first three chapters in particular) are accessible to the lay reader interested in the development of bioethics and biomedical sciences, both inside and outside Singapore, from 2000 (the year in which the BAC was established). Both scholars and interested lay readers are therefore likely to find this publication a valuable reference.

This book provides an analysis of the ways in which the BAC has established an ethical framework for biomedical research in Singapore, following the launch of the Biomedical Sciences Initiative by the Singapore Government. The editors and authors have an intimate knowledge of the working of the BAC, and the focus of the book includes the ways in which international forces have influenced the form and substance of bioethics in Singapore. Together, the authors offer a comparative account of the institutionalisation of biomedical research ethics in Singapore, considered in the wider context of international regulatory efforts. The book reviews the work of the BAC by placing it within the broader cultural, social and political discourses that have emerged in relation to the life sciences since the turn of the 21st century. This book is not primarily intended to be a retrospect or an appraisal of the contribution of the BAC, though this is one aspect of it. Rather, the main intention is to make a substantive contribution to the rapidly emerging field of bioethics. Ethical discussions in the book include consideration of stem cell research and cloning, genetics and research with human participants, and focus on likely future developments as well as the past.Many of the contributors of the book have been personally involved in this work, and hence they write with an authoritative first-hand knowledge that scholars in bioethics and public policy may appreciate. As indicated above, the book also explains the way in which ethics and science - international and local - have interacted in a policy setting. Scholars and policy makers may find the Singaporean experience to be a valuable resource, as the approach has been to make the ethical governance of research in Singapore consistent with international best practice while observing the requirements of a properly localised application of universally accepted principles. In addition, at least three chapters (the first three chapters in particular) are accessible to the lay reader interested in the development of bioethics and biomedical sciences, both inside and outside Singapore, from 2000 (the year in which the BAC was established). Both scholars and interested lay readers are therefore likely to find this publication a valuable reference.

Privacy is an unwieldy concept that has eluded an essentialised definition despite its centrality and importance in the body of bioethics. The compilation presented in this volume represents continuing discussions on the theme of privacy in the context of genetic information. It is intended to present a wide range of expert opinion in which the notion of privacy is examined from many perspectives, in different contexts and imperatives, and in different societies, with the hope of advancing an understanding of privacy through the examination and critique of some of its evolving component concepts such as notions of what constitute the personal, the context of privacy, the significance and impact of the relational interests of others who may share the same genetic inheritance, and mechanisms for the protection of privacy (as well as of their limitations), among others. More specifically, the discussions in this volume encourages us to think broadly about privacy, as encompassing values that are entailed in the sociality of context and of relations, and also as freedom from illegitimate and excessive surveillance. A long-standing question that continues to challenge us is whether genetic information should be regarded as exceptional, as it is often perceived. A conclusion that could be derived from this volume is that while genetic information may be significant, it is not exceptionally so. The work presented in this volume underlines the continuing and growing relevance of notions of privacy to genomic science, and the need to take ownership of a genetic privacy for the future through broad, rigorous and open discussion.Contributors: Alastair V Campbell, Benjamin Capps, Jacqueline JL Chin, Oi Lian Kon, Kenji Matsui, Thomas H Murray, Nazirudin Mohd Nasir, Dianne Nicol, Anh Tuan Nuyen, Onora O'Neill, Margaret Otlowski, Yvette van der Eijk, Chunshui Wang, Ross S White.