Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Due to their direct intervention into human procreation,
advanced fertility treatments, commonly known as assisted reproductive
technologies (ART), are associated with complex policy problems that
are often wrought with ethical implications. In fact, countries to
varying degrees have struggled with defining the role of the state in
relation to policy questions such as: is procreation a right? If so,
does government have a role in providing the means to realize this
procreative right? Does the embryo have personhood? What is the role of
the state in providing for the rights of the embryo while enabling the
procreative rights of others? Should access to, advancement and
applications of ART be under the purview of the state? Germany’s Embryo
Protection Law (1990) is considered among the most restrictive policies
governing access to and the advancement of ART. Defining ART in terms
of its implications on the human embryo, the Embryo Protection Law
regulates a range of practices related to ART such as embryo transfers,
pre-implantation manipulation or altering of an embryo, and the use of
sperm from non-living donors. Furthermore, the law also defines under
what circumstances women may access ART. The major focus of this
investigation is to determine the intra- and extra-governmental factors
contributing to Germany’s Embryo Protection Law by applying Baumgartner
and Jones’ (1993) dual mobilization model. According to this model, a
rapid change in how the issue is defined on the public agenda (measured
through media coverage) accompanied by increased issue attention will
lead to policy venue instability. We expect, then, that changes in the
tone of media coverage of ART accompanied by increases in related issue
density will lead to ART-policy venue change. In addition, the model
contends that institutional stability is likely to be accompanied by
issue redefinition resulting in corresponding changes in policy
outcomes. For our purposes, then, we hypothesize that ART-policy venue
change leads to shifts in ART-policy outcomes. Our research is based on
an analysis of 465 ART-related articles printed in major German
newspaper dailies from1980 to 1997 providing insight into how ART’s
definition on the public agenda before and after the adoption of the
Embryo Protection Law. The tone and focus of each newspaper article was
coded. Additional data were collected from archival sources such as
legislative records of floor proceedings and committee transcripts of
hearings. Personal interviews were conducted with intra- and
extra-governmental actors who were active in either the policy
formulation or policy decision-making stages related to the Embryo
Protection Law as well. This research contributes to agenda setting
theory and to the growing field of assisted reproductive technology
policy. While the majority of research on ART policy is limited to the
consequences of policy outcomes on technology access and technology
development, this study analyzes the factors affecting ART-policy
adoption and outcomes.
Baumgartner, Frank and Bryan Jones. Agendas and Instability in American
Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper will examine the debate surrounding the use of flow cytometry and preimplantation genetic diagnosis to sex select children for social reasons in order to interrogate the meanings of sexed sperm and embryos. By analyzing this specific node within the larger domain of both sex selection and the new reproductive technologies, I hope to create an initial site of entry into the complex webs that have constructed this controversy. A sample of written publications from May 2001 – May 2002, appearing in newspapers, popular magazines and science/medical/bioethics journals, have been examined. This paper will begin by mapping the social worlds that have represented their positions within these media on preconception sex selective technologies; specific focus will be paid to the meanings that sorted sperm and sexed embryos have to each group. I hope to further problematize the ethical debate surrounding sex selection by considering whose voices were not articulated in the resolution of this debate in order to highlight the role of power. The paper will conclude with a discussion of how divergent groups came together to translate the diverse meanings of sex selected sperm and embryos during a key historical moment in both the technical and sociocultural trajectories in order to maintain the project of sex selecting children.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Using the Philippines and U.S. colonial empire as an example, this paper will show the ways that law serves as a vehicle for colonial hegemony, how the role of law is strictly connected to the construction of the state, and the way that law is also inseparable from issues of family, oligarchy, and social inequality. The Philippine and U.S. example will be related to the situation in other countries, especially in Asia, and different methods of colonial domination.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper addresses the way in which the figure of the embryo has begun to occupy legal space. The primary focus is on recent legislation in Italy which gave symbolic legal recognition to the interests of the embryo, but the argument will also address developments in Germany and Ireland in the area of embryo protection, in order to take a measure of the cultural phenomenon of embryo protection and its infiltration into legal discourse. In such a narrative, the embryo as virtual citizen, in the sense of its potential to form a community based on a philosophy of Life, provides a point of suture for traditionalist cultural narratives of a nation in fragmentation. The embryo is to be granted added protection, as its termination would rob the nation of future life, placing the nation in peril as well as the embryo. This converging of the nation with the embryo is a masterstroke of traditionlist symbolizing. It constructs a discourse in which the nation supports an ideology of life but which is unspoken and unimpeachable. It is a narrative in which those who would oppose it are immediately constructed as enemies of the nation. Thus, women who seek control over reproductive decisions by availing of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, who attempt to conceive with donated gametes, or who wish to terminate their pregnancy interrupt this vitalist national narrative. In the discourse of traditionalist groups authentic Italian identity is coeval with life and regeneration. This conservative strategy has come to fruition recently in Italy with the passing of legislation in 2004 which afforded symbolic legal recognition to the embryo. The paper will examine this process and analyse its implications for reproductive autonomy.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: [Objectives] With regard to the use of experimental animals for research and education, alternative methods for animal testing came to be discussed. Thus, based on social acceptance, experimental studies using chick embryos have drawn attention. The present study evaluated the effect of the hypothyroidism induced by thiamazole on the toxicity of amitriptyline in chick embryos. [Methods] Fertilized eggs of White Leghorns were incubated and investigated. 1.2 mg/0.2 mL/egg of thiamazole was injected into the albumen of fertilized eggs of incubation. Amitriptyline at 1 mg/egg, 2.5 mg/egg or 5 mg/egg was injected into the air sac of the thiamazole untreated eggs on the 16th day of incubation. And amitriptyline at 1 mg/egg was injected into the air sac of the thiamazole-treated eggs or the untreated eggs on the 16th day of incubation. Electrocardiograms (ECGs) were recorded 0 to 60 min after the injection. [Results] After the administration of amitriptyline 1 mg/egg, the heart rate was not different compared with physiological saline. However, the heart rate was significantly decreased by the administration of 2.5 mg/egg and 5 mg/egg amitriptyline. After the injection of amitriptyline into the thiamazole-treated eggs, the heart rate was significantly decreased compared with the untreated eggs. [Implications] In the present study, the influence of the hypothyrodism on the toxicity of amitriptyline was demonstrated in chick embryos. In conclusion, thiamazole-treated chick embryos may prove to be an alternative animal model with which to examine the cardiotoxicity of some drugs, including amitriptyline, under certain experimental situations.