Going with the Flow

Moving Cells and Changing Values in Biomedical Practice

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5338151
AutoresP Delvenne (0000-0002-3052-6252, University of Liège, autor correspondente), Hadrien Macq (0000-0002-8660-3181, University of Liège), Céline Parotte (0000-0002-8205-4760, University of Liège)
Ano2023
Volume51
Fascículo3
Páginas503-530
Data de publicação2023-12-27
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/01622439231218788
OpenAlexW4390344073
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas41

Science and technology studies have devoted considerable attention to the economic implications of biomedical technoscience. This article enriches these studies by offering a new reading of several strands of literature to explore how the valuation processes of gifts, commodities, and assets are intertwined in practice. We derive this approach from an empirical analysis of autologous blood donation in the case of a cell therapy called "extracorporeal photopheresis." Combining ethnographic fieldwork with semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and document analysis in a cell therapy laboratory at a Belgian university hospital, we followed cells in motion from their original donation to their reinjection into the body, observing the practices that constitute and shape their value. We find that the various qualifications as "gift," "commodity," or "asset" that cells acquire, accumulate, or relinquish, as well as the consequences of these qualifications, are accessible only by observing the valuation practices that configure living processes. Our analysis highlights the interrelations between the economic forms that living entities can take and rejects the idea of a watertight boundary between them. By emphasizing the entanglement of logics specific to donation, commodification, or assetization, we contribute to linking the value shifts observed at the level of the laboratory to broader capitalist transformations

Commodification · Posthumanism · Value (mathematics · Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development · Biomedical and Engineering Education · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation