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Abstract
As in other areas of science, the conditions under which stem cell research develops are crucial to the development of its knowledge products. Material and intellectual resources, governance, and culture are factors that underlie the realization of science. The concept of bionetworking aims to capture these factors, and we use it to describe the evolution of the network activities of for-profit providers of stem cell therapy in the context of the three-stage evolution of scientific governance in China.
On the basis of empirical and archival research, we argue that international trends in stem cell regulation both hamper and stimulate the development of stem cell research in China. On the one hand, the Chinese government is put under pressure to set high, alien standards for its most advanced stem cell research laboratories and clinics; thus, only a few institutions are able to follow internationally dominant trends. On the other hand, unrealistic implementation has allowed widespread transgression of regulation, enabling researchers to gain clinical experience.
We illustrate how the networking activities of collaborative for-profit networks and translational research are fundamentally affected by the regulatory reforms in China, showing how governance, scientific development, and social conditions are closely intertwined. We argue that good governance in China does not necessarily mean following international regulatory trends to the letter.
Acknowledgments
This article has benefited from research support provided by the European Research Council (283219) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I018107/1).
Notes
1 The name of the Ministry of Health has changed to the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China. Here, for uniformity, this article still uses MoH.
2 Before the publication in Entrepreneur, there had been some media and patient disclosures on “stem cell disorder,” including “The Truth of Stem Cell: ‘Betting’ on Sickbed” and “Stem Cell Transplantation: Real or Dream?,” by the weekly Xinmin Zhoukan (新民周刊), issue 38 (2007); “The Magical Power of Stem Cells,” by CCTV Economic Half Hour, 18 April 2011; “The Black Market of Stem Cell,” by New Century (Xinshiji 新世纪), March 2011; and “Truth of Stem Cell Transplantation Flood,” by China Consumer (Zhongguo Xiaofeizhe 中国消费者), 15 March 2012, which is “Consumer's Rights Day.”
3 In Chinese, “life-saving straw” (救命稻草) means that there is a chance but the possibility of success is slight, like a drowning person grabbing a straw.
4 For confidentiality, we use a number as the “name” of every army hospital in China.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Suli Sui
Suli Sui is associate professor in the School of Humanities and Social Science at Peking Union Medical College. She holds a PhD in medical sociology from Amsterdam University in Holland and a master's of law from Renmin University of China. She was a visiting scholar at the School of Public Health at Harvard University, Leiden University, and London School of Economics. Sui specializes in the interdisciplinary field addressing medical science, law, and bioethics. She has published three coauthored books, one of which is in English, and about thirty academic papers, six of which are in English.
Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/192052) is professor of social and medical anthropology at the University of Sussex (Brighton, UK). Her work focuses on nationalism and processes of nation-state building in China and Japan and on biotechnology and society in East Asia. She currently leads the Centre for Bionetworking and directs two projects, one focusing on international science collaboration in advanced stem cell therapies (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 2011–14) and the other on biobanking in the life sciences and hospitals (financed by the European Research Council, 2012–17). Her most recent book is titled Global Morality and Life Science Practices in Asia: Assemblages of Life (2014).