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Empirical studies of life science research and biotechnologies in Asia show how assemblages of life articulate bioethics governance with global moralities and reveal why the global harmonization of bioethical standards is contrived, This book explores the concept of life assemblages, drawing attention to the diverging ways in which societies share questions of what is a life worth living. In accordance with the urgency, gist and expression of such questions, societies deal with the regulation of new developments and practices in life science research and mobilise available political mechanisms to deliberate them. Seventeen empirical case studies debate themes ranging from population planning, reproductive decision-making, genetic testing and genomics to human embryonic stem cell research and experimental stem cell therapies in Asian countries. The debates outlined also shed light on theoretical conceptualisations of eugenics, biopower, risk signatures, population studies, public deliberation, reproductive choice, bioethics, bionetworking, international science collaboration, public deliberation, research objects and scientific development in countries of different levels of wealth

Preliminary Material /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter One. Introduction /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Two. Locating Cass /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Three. The Establishment Of Cass And The Process Of Prc State-Building /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Four. Initial Reform (1977–1982)—Rehabilitations And Expectations /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Five. Academic Democracy And Spiritual Pollution (1982–1985) /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Six. Division Among Intellectuals (1985–1988)—Socialist Modernization And The Reforms /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Seven. Increasing Open Conflict In The Ideological Sphere (1988–1989) /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Eight. Tightening Control And The Liberalization Of Academic Research (1990–1992) /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Nine. Deepening The Reforms (1993–1998) /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Ten. Who Works At Cass And Why? /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Eleven. National, Rational, And Symbolic Understanding In Academic China And Cass /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Twelve. The Transformation Of Party Guidance In Cass /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Thirteen. Streamlining Cass—From Direct Control To Regulatory Information Networks /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Fourteen. LI Tieying And The Role Of Cass In State Policy-Making /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chapter Fifteen. Changing The System From Within? /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Appendix I. Cass Research Institutes /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Appendix II. Chronology Of The Founding Of The Xuebu And Cass Institutes /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Appendix III. Economic Research Institutes And Their Research Divisions /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Appendix IV. The History Of The Leadership System Of Cass /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Appendix V. Selection Of Commemorations Held At Cass From 1992 To 1997 /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Appendix VI. Ritualized Occasions /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Bibliography: Chinese /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Bibliography: European Languages /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Chinese Glossary Of Recurrent Concepts And Key Phrases /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner -- Index /M. Sleeboom-Faulkner.

This article concerns the roles of entrepreneurial scientists in the co-production of life science research and regulation. Regulatory brokerage, defined as a mode of strategic planning and as the negotiation of regulation based on comparative advantage and competition, is expressed in scientific activities that take advantage of regulatory difference. This article is based on social science research in Japan, Thailand, India and the UK. Using five cases related to Japan's international activities in the field of regenerative medicine, I argue that, driven by competitive advantage, regulatory brokerage at lower levels of managerial organization and governance is emulated at higher levels. In addition, as regulatory brokerage affects the creation of regulation at national, bilateral and global levels, new regulation may be based on competition in regulatory advantage rather than on ethical and scientific values. I argue that regulatory brokerage as the basis for regulatory reform bypasses issues that need to be decided by a broader public. More space is needed for international and political debate about the socio-political consequences of the global diversity of regulation in the field of the life sciences.

This article concerns the roles of entrepreneurial scientists in the co-production of life science research and regulation. Regulatory brokerage, defined as a mode of strategic planning and as the negotiation of regulation based on comparative advantage and competition, is expressed in scientific activities that take advantage of regulatory difference. This article is based on social science research in Japan, Thailand, India and the UK. Using five cases related to Japan's international activities in the field of regenerative medicine, I argue that, driven by competitive advantage, regulatory brokerage at lower levels of managerial organization and governance is emulated at higher levels. In addition, as regulatory brokerage affects the creation of regulation at national, bilateral and global levels, new regulation may be based on competition in regulatory advantage rather than on ethical and scientific values. I argue that regulatory brokerage as the basis for regulatory reform bypasses issues that need to be decided by a broader public. More space is needed for international and political debate about the socio-political consequences of the global diversity of regulation in the field of the life sciences.

Genetic epidemiology examines the role of genetic factors in determining health and disease in families and in populations to help addressing health problems in a responsible manner. This article uses a case study of genetic epidemiology in Taizhou, China, to explore ways in which anthropology can contribute to the validation of studies in genetic epidemiology. It does so, first, by identifying potential overgeneralizations of data, often due to mismatching scale and, second, by examining its embedding in political, historical and local contexts. The example of the longitudinal cohort study in Taizhou illustrates dimensions of such 'political scaling'. Political scaling is a notion I use to refer to the effects of scaling biases in relation to the justification of research in terms of relevance, reach, and research ethics. The justification of a project on genetic epidemiology involves presenting a maximum of benefits and a minimum of burden for the population. To facilitate the delineation of political scaling, I make an analytical distinction between donating and benefiting communities, using the notions of 'scaling of relevance', 'scaling of reach' and 'scaling of ethics'. Political scaling results at least partly from factors external to research. By situating political scaling in the context of historical, political and local discourses, anthropologists can play a complementary role in genetic epidemiology.

This article aims to put into perspective the binary opposition between 'scientific' clinical research trials and 'rogue' experimental stem cell therapies, and to show why the ethics criteria used by the dominant science community are not suitable for distinguishing between adequate and inadequate treatments. By focusing on the grey area between clinical stem cell trials and stem cell experimentation, the experimental space where patients, medical professionals and life scientists negotiate for diverging reasons and aims, I show why idealised notions of ethics are not feasible for many stem cell scientists in low- and middle-income countries. Drawing on fieldwork in China from 2012 to 2013, the article asks why 'the unethical' according to some is acceptable to Chinese life scientists. The case study of stem cell service provider Beike Biotech illustrates how stem cell interventions take place in a large grey area, where narrow notions of ethics are blurred with and supplanted by broader notions of ethics, co-determined by estimations of socio-economic, political and cultural understandings of risk, opportunity and benefit. I borrow the term 'bionetworking', understood as the entrepreneurial aspects of scientific networks that engage in creating biomedical products, to analyse various forms of medical experimentation. I speak of the 'externalisation' and 'internalisation' of local factors to elucidate how features of patient populations and their environments are subsumed in clinical research applications. Compared to polarised views of stem cell therapy, this approach increases the transparency of clinical interventions and broadens our understanding of why 'stem cell tourism' to some is 'stem cell therapy' to others.

This article explores the relationship between the science community and the bioethical regulation of human embryonic stem cell research (hESR) in the laboratory and in daily life in Japan. It develops a perspective that takes into account the diversity of views among principle investigators (PIs) and scientists working in the laboratory. Deploying Eviatar Zerubavel's notion of social mindscapes and the notion of mindsets, I elucidate the relationships between the personal and the professional, scientists and the public. Introducing the concept of mindset switching, I argue that scientists' views of embryonic substances cannot be understood adequately in terms of the rhetoric of boundary making alone. The use of cognitive notions of social mindscape applied to situations in the life of scientists has far-reaching consequences for both the implementation of research regulation involving respect for the embryo and for the public discussion on the use of embryonic substances. The article is based on interviews with over thirty scientists working with embryos and stem cells during fieldwork visits in eleven science institutes in Japan.

This article examines hundreds of Chinese handbooks on family planning, reproductive life, and the creation of high-quality offspring. It queries the emphasis these handbooks place on education and individual awareness, arguing that both the eugenic aspirations of the state and its focus on individual choice are misplaced when applied to rural regions. I argue that birth-planning and genetic awareness cannot be understood adequately without considering the interest of individuals and family-households in their sociocultural and economic contexts. Rather than following state reproductive policies, rural households take into account the effects of population planning and use these in their own interests. Though the interests of the state, individuals and households interact, they do not converge. Rather than presuming that increased education and awareness will raise interest in premarital testing, this article argues that the agency of the household overrides the wishes of the individual and the state to undergo premarital testing, not so much despite, but thanks to, eugenic education. (China J/GIGA)