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‘Nationalizing Embryos’: The Politics of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research in Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

Ingrid Metzler
Ingrid Metzler
Affiliation:
Life-Science-Governance Research Platform, Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Universitaetsstrasse 7/2, 1010 ViennaAustria E-mail: ingrid.metzler@univie.ac.at
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Abstract

Over the last decade, many European countries have sought to capitalize on the promising opportunities of human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research. Italy, in contrast, has renounced this line of research. HESC research is not altogether forbidden in Italian laboratories, but restricted and not supported by public investment. In this article, I seek to make sense of Italy’s stance. I argue that the politics of human embryonic stem cell research in Italy has arisen as a consequence of the reordering of Italy’s biopolitics through the ‘nationalization’ of Italian embryos. This has deprived Italian laboratories of their research material and given Italian stem cells their particular meaning.

Keywords

biopoliticscitizenshipembryoshuman embryonic stem cell researchItalyreferenda
Type
Articles
Information
BioSocieties , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 413 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2007

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