biofutures: owning body parts & information

Biofutures was positively reviewed in Nature this week. The review noted that

It is appropriate that a commentary on the possible futures and dangers associated with owning parts of the body — a discussion anchored in biology as information — should be presented as a hypertext DVD rather than as a conventional book. … The authors use their broad backgrounds in science policy, history and English literature to locate the question of body ownership within the wider fields of social science and bioethics.

The review comments that

Any bioethicist would struggle to find principles that might act as an arbiter of the moral dilemmas posed by the different cases in Biofutures. Indeed, the authors steer clear of this, concluding that we need to attain a deeper understanding.

The full review is available HERE.

BOOKS TO BEDSIDE: TRANSLATIONAL WORK IN THE MEDICAL HUMANITIES
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago
Spring meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
April 23 – 25, 2009

At this conference we will explore the application of the methods and texts of the humanities disciplines to the knowledge and practice of medicine, an endeavor that has come to be known as “Medical Humanities.” We use the model of translational research, in which bioscientific research is “translated” to its clinical applications, to consider both the research work of the medical humanities—the texts we study and the books we write—and its translation to patient care—the “bedside.” Through paired plenaries, hands-on workshops, and a closing session on redefining the Medical Humanities, we will try to answer such questions as: What is the “bench work” of the medical humanities? What does it mean to bring books to bedside? Do the humanities have an intrinsic role in clinical thinking? How does humanities research translate into clinical practice? What is the relation of narrative theory to narrative medicine? What is the relationship between the humanities and humanism?

http://bioethics.northwestern.edu/events/asbh_spring09_conf.html.