Situated Practice and the Emergence of Ethical Research

HPV Vaccine Development and Organizational Cultures of Translation at the National Cancer Institute

Bibliographic Data

ID5337558
AuthorsNatalie B Aviles (0000-0003-3754-1073, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume43
Issue5
Pages810-833
Publication date2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243917749728
OpenAlexW2787211754
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited21

This article explores the role scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a US federal science agency, played in researching and testing vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Drawing upon archival sources and oral history interview data, I challenge narratives that attribute the design of HPV vaccines to profit motive. Instead, I show that the researchers who developed the technology attempted to construct ethical approaches to vaccine development based on the values that emerged from their situated environments of technological, organizational, and institutional constraint. I argue that interpretations of "translational research" native to the NCI influenced these researchers' efforts to design and test HPV vaccines. The organizational culture of translational research emerging in the NCI positioned intramural research as a countervailing and supplementary force to market-oriented translational research and development. Over time, NCI researchers' conceptions of the Institute's role allowed them to develop understandings of ethical HPV vaccine research as oriented toward addressing cervical cancer health disparities, especially in developing nations. NCI scientists' understanding of their role in serving the public good through continued HPV vaccine innovation reflects the material and political economic environment they faced at different historical junctures that constrained the possibilities for innovation and ethical action

Engineering ethics · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Translational research · Cervical Cancer and HPV Research · Engineering · Hepatitis B Virus Studies · Medicine · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

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