The Proliferation of Stem Cell Therapies in Contemporary China

CEAS COLLOQUIUM

Priscilla Song Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology , Washington University

As the former emphasis on preventive care during the Maoist era has given way to a market-driven pursuit of high-tech interventions, changes in the political economy of health care have transformed China's urban medical system into a laboratory for entrepreneurial tactics.  Despite critical scrutiny from scientific experts and tightening guidelines targeting the conduct of translational medicine, unauthorized stem cell clinics targeting foreign patients have flourished under "health care with Chinese characteristics."  This talk provides an ethnographic account of how Chinese medical practitioners have capitalized on the hope and hype over stem cell research to promote "cutting-edge" procedures on the fringes of biomedical practice.