Volume 6, No. 2
Book Review
Asian Biotech: Ethics and Communities of Fate
Aihwa Ong and Nancy N. Chen (eds.)
Duke University Press 2010
Soraj Hongladarom
Abstract
Asia has become a global force not only in terms of the sheer size of its economy and population, but also as an increasingly strong player in the field of production of scientific knowledge and technological capabilities. In this collection, editors Aihwa Ong and Nancy Chen attemp to delineate the rather complicated picture of this emergence of science and technology in Asia, especially in biological sciences and biotechnology. A theme that recurs throughout this volume is that science and technology do not exist in a vacuum; rather, they are intricately interwoven with social, historical and cultural contexts, or “milieus”, a word that is often used in the book. As life sciences and associated technologies deal directly with human bodies and their biological components, they have a way of entering into these social and cultural contexts, including the distinctive value systems of the cultures across the Asian continent.
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