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Immunitary bioeconomy: The economisation of life in the international cord blood market.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21398003     Owner:  NLM     Status:  Publisher    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
This paper examines an emerging bioeconomy centred on the international banking and trade in cord blood. Since the late 1980s cord blood has been used in an expanding range of treatments and as an alternative to the use of bone marrow stem cells. This is particularly the case in treating ethnic minority populations who have historically been under-represented in bone marrow registries. The paper explores the mobilisation and commercialisation of an increasingly important bioeconomic resource with cord blood units trading internationally at high prices. This is a market mediated through a sophisticated global network of immunologically typed and matched bodily matter in which immunity has become a form of 'corporeal currency'. Based on recent international figures we reflect upon the balance of trade between imports and exports across the world's cord blood bioeconomy. Theoretically, this case is, we suggest, an extension of what Roberto Esposito (2008) has termed an 'immunitary paradigm' in which immunity has become the basis for new forms of bioeconomic flow, circulation and exchange. Esposito (2008). Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Authors:
Nik Brown; Laura Machin; Danae McLeod
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Publication Detail:
Type:  JOURNAL ARTICLE     Date:  2011-2-13
Journal Detail:
Title:  Social science & medicine (1982)     Volume:  -     ISSN:  1873-5347     ISO Abbreviation:  -     Publication Date:  2011 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-3-14     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8303205     Medline TA:  Soc Sci Med     Country:  -    
Other Details:
Languages:  ENG     Pagination:  -     Citation Subset:  -    
Copyright Information:
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Affiliation:
Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York, United Kingdom.
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