Stem cells through stem beliefs: The co-production of biotechnological pluralism

In the last decade human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have emerged as prominent scientific and political objects. Their potential for regenerative medicine and the intersection with early human life spurred both great excitement and considerable ethical worries. Partially as a response to this controversy, the search for ethically unproblematic sources of hESCs became a priority. This paper analyses two paradigmatic examples of this search that emerged within the US President's Council on Bioethics (PCB). The first is altered nuclear transfer (ANT), a proposal aimed at modifying the cloning protocol to generate life forms useful for hESC harvesting but incapable of further development. From its inception to the contested implementation by leading scientists, ANT displays the intimate co-production of the scientific and the social: moral norms become encoded in genetic designs, enabling the mutual reinforcement of biotechnological rationalities and political commitments to science and social cohesion. The second example is the attempt to define embryo death in order to equate hESC harvesting to organ transplantation. Also in this case, again in a poignant display of co-production, the social design of brain death is re-enacted in the scientific quest for molecular markers of embryo death. In both cases the mutual adaptation of moral norms and epistemic practices generates biological artefacts as technological solutions to political controversies. This heralds a great intimacy between the scientific and political tasks of making sense of life. This in turn has implications for the pluralistic development of biotechnologically mature societies.