I have not been able to post for sometime now, and I though that I would wrap up the term with a quick entry and talk a little bit about what I have learned, as well as some incredible information that I learned from the recent article we read by Brian Salter called "The Global Politics of Human Embryonic Cell Science". This piece really helped me understand the basic politics that involve HESC, and how social and cultural ideas directly affect the concepts of HESC. The amount of research around the world in regards to HESC has increased drastically in the past couple years, and can be directly correlated to the investment that is put into this growing and promising field of research. I was astonished about the ideas of patenting the different strands of HESC, and that each stem cell has its own unique qualities. Ethics is a big portion to HESC, and many companies have allocated their policies on how to use HESC and were they are located from.
This term has been quite difficult for me in regards to this course. I came into it as a social science major with no background about the human genome and stem cells. I am still a little lost in regards to how the process works, but the articles we have read have really helped me understand the concepts. I believe this piece would have been more helpful at the beginning of the term. The final project has definitely been a challenge because the world-wide-web is full of so much information, that it can become difficult to weed through what information is relevant and accurate, to what is not credible and what is. I have decided to take a look at prenatal testing in regards to pregnancy. I want to see the promises within the techniques that we currently use while women are pregnant, and what affect this will have on genetic screening and the use of genetic counselors.
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Good to hear that you found Salter's article worthwhile. One of the authors of the iPS cell policy article had encouraged me to use something by Salter (and I was able to tell him that I already had Salter as part of the course). I gave some thought to putting Salter closer to the front of the line, so to speak, but thought some of the other papers were necessary to make better use of Salter's argument. However, I think I could move it up a few weeks (i.e., not at the beginning of the term bur around the middle of the term). I think you have a good topic...especially if the testing techniques are looked at to see what they are said to promise women (e.g., information necessary for a healthier pregnancy, information about a problematic pregnancy or a fetus at risk for a serious genetic condition and such). What resources have you located thus far? How are you deciding what sorts of things to look for?
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