Polygraph Priests and the Monstrous Congregation: Science, Sex and Sin on the Edge of Truth

Balmer, A.S. and Sandland, R. (under review)

This paper examines the use of the polygraph machine, the most infamous of lie detectors, in the management and treatment of sex offenders. It takes a strongly Foucauldian position by demonstrating its affinity with a long history of technological interventions in sexuality and confession, arguing that the device is an extension of risk and surveillance society, and thereby allowing it to function in a complex series of relations between truth/fiction, normal/abnormal and the 'monstrous'. It further argues that the polygraph machine, when coupled to various other technologies, in the broadest sense, functions as a form of punishment that fits neither within historical or contemporary modes. Finally it reflects on the meanings of these relations for thinking about cultural representations of the device.

Craig Venter and the Re-programming of Life: How metaphors shape and perform ethical discourses in the media presentation of synthetic biology

Balmer, A.S. and Herreman, C. (2009) In Nerlich, B., Elliott, R. and Larson, B. (eds.) Communicating biological sciences: ethical and metaphorical dimensions. London: Ashgate.

Synthetic Biology  is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary science at the confluence of biology and engineering. It focuses on the design and fabrication of biological systems through the ‘writing’ of DNA. This newest field in the ‘new’ genetics is increasingly seen as a paradigmatic shift in our relationship with nature. In this paper we will show that when scientists and the media try to convey its novel features and promises, they tend to use a language which, although rooted in the discourses used to frame older genetic advances such as genetic engineering and the decoding of the Human Genome Project (HGP), changes the focus of metaphorical framing from interpreting and altering to inventing and fabricating. This underlines both the field’s continuity and similarity with what has gone before but also signals various discontinuities and differences. We aim not only to investigate the rhetorical function of metaphors used by scientists and journalists when writing about synthetic biology, but to understand their inherent ethics and the implications this may have for public understanding of this field.

Synthetic Biology: Social and Ethical Challenges

Co-authored with Dr. Paul Martin

Almost Human: Scientific and Popular Strategies for Making Sense of “Missing Links”

Goulden, M. and Balmer, A.S. (2009) in Bauer, S., Jessen, H. & Wahlberg, A (eds) Contested Categories: Studies of the Life Sciences in Society. Hampshire, Ashgate

Social Inclusivity vs. Analytical Acuity? A Qualitative Study of UK Researchers Regarding the Inclusion of Minority Ethnic Groups in Biobanks

Smart, A., Tutton, R., Ashcroft, R., Martin, P., Balmer, A., Elliot, R., and Ellison, G.T.H. (2008) in Special Issue: Implementing Genetic Database Governance Medical Law International  9 (2): 169-190

This paper examines how the drive to include minority ethnic groups in biomedical research raises challenging questions for the governance of some biobanks. Using findings from a qualitative study with researchers working at 10 UK biobanks that have been designed to explore common complex diseases, our study highlights the potential discordance between the twin imperatives of ‘social inclusivity’ and ‘analytical acuity’. While the researchers interviewed were keen to include minority ethnic groups in their research, they were also concerned that this could have deleterious effects on the precision of their analyses. In our discussion of these findings we show that there remains considerable debate as to the impact of including participants from minority ethnic groups on analytical acuity. Nevertheless, a principle of justice requires that potential participants from all ethnic groups should be given the opportunity to participate in and benefit from biomedical research, and UK law requires public bodies (including research councils) to demonstrate that there is no unintentional or unjustifiable ‘racial’ discrimination in their activities. Researchers’ concerns about analytical acuity could result in calls for study designs that examine every ‘different’ ethnic group, which would have consequences for the governance of some biobank studies and for efforts to challenge the discredited yet resilient idea that differences between ethnic groups are innate, essential and immutable.