BIOPOLITICS, ETHICS AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE João Arriscado Nunes CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS – LABORATÓRIO ASSOCIADO FACULDADE DE ECONOMIA DA UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA

Biopower and biopolitics Truth discourses about the “vital” character of living human beings Array of authorities considered competent to speak the truth Strategies for intervention upon collective existence in the name of life and health Modes of subjectification: individuals work on themselves in the name of individual or collective life or health (Rabinow and Rose, 2003)

Postgenomic biomedicine and changing conceptions of the biological and of biopolitics From deterministic to open-ended and dynamic conceptions of biological complexity From “Biology as Destiny” to biology as changeable, “repairable” and “optimizable” through technoscientific interventions

The rise of the “somatic citizen” Health as a responsibility of individuals Risk and susceptibility: the emergence of the “healthy”, pre- or a-symptomatic ill “Optimization” and the promissory notes of regenerative medicine

Biosocialities and biocapital The somatic citizen and his/her attachments to medicine and professionals The emergence of new collectives based on the sharing of biological conditions (e.g., patient associations, platforms, coalitions, social movements in health) The rise of biocapital and of a new political economy of “life itself” (public and private support of R&D, role of startups, venture capital, big pharma, medical-industrial complex)

Ethical/biopolitical challenges Codes vs regulation Regulation of stem cell research and of the use of human embryos in research Regulation of research on biomedical innovations involving human subjects (Contested) boundaries of the human The politics of health care in the postgenomic era: priorities, limited resources, inequalities and access, protection of patients/citizens

Biopolitical responses International instruments (declarations, EU directives…) Self-regulation (scientists, medical profession…) Market regulation National legislation Bioethics committees Public engagement initiatives Collective action