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Ethics, space, and somatic sensibilities: comparing relationships between scientific researchers and their human and animal experimental subjects

Ethics, space, and somatic sensibilities: comparing relationships between scientific researchers and their human and animal experimental subjects
Ethics, space, and somatic sensibilities: comparing relationships between scientific researchers and their human and animal experimental subjects
Drawing on geographies of affect and nature-society relations, we propose a radical rethinking of how scientists, social scientists, and regulatory agencies conceptualise human and animal participants in scientif ic research. The scientific rationale for using animal bodies to simulate what could be done in human bodies emphasises shared somatic capacities that generate comparable responses to clinical interventions. At the same time, regulatory guidelines and care practices stress the differences between human and animal subjects. In this paper we consider the implications of this
differentiation between human and animal bodies in ethical and welfare protocols and practices. We show how the bioethical debates around the use of human subjects tend to focus on issues of consent and language, while recent work in animal welfare reflects an increasing focus on the affectual dimensions of ethical practice. We argue that this attention to the more-than-representational dimensions of ethics and welfare might be equally important for human subjects. We assert that paying attention to these somatic sensibilities can offer insights into how experimental environments can both facilitate and restrict the development of more care-full and response-able relations between researchers and their experimental subjects.
47-66
Greenhough, Beth
95a602e8-dd79-4d62-b3d5-0075ae70398a
Roe, Emma J.
f7579e4e-3721-4046-a2d4-d6395f61c675
Greenhough, Beth
95a602e8-dd79-4d62-b3d5-0075ae70398a
Roe, Emma J.
f7579e4e-3721-4046-a2d4-d6395f61c675

Greenhough, Beth and Roe, Emma J. (2011) Ethics, space, and somatic sensibilities: comparing relationships between scientific researchers and their human and animal experimental subjects. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 29 (1), 47-66. (doi:10.1068/d17109).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Drawing on geographies of affect and nature-society relations, we propose a radical rethinking of how scientists, social scientists, and regulatory agencies conceptualise human and animal participants in scientif ic research. The scientific rationale for using animal bodies to simulate what could be done in human bodies emphasises shared somatic capacities that generate comparable responses to clinical interventions. At the same time, regulatory guidelines and care practices stress the differences between human and animal subjects. In this paper we consider the implications of this
differentiation between human and animal bodies in ethical and welfare protocols and practices. We show how the bioethical debates around the use of human subjects tend to focus on issues of consent and language, while recent work in animal welfare reflects an increasing focus on the affectual dimensions of ethical practice. We argue that this attention to the more-than-representational dimensions of ethics and welfare might be equally important for human subjects. We assert that paying attention to these somatic sensibilities can offer insights into how experimental environments can both facilitate and restrict the development of more care-full and response-able relations between researchers and their experimental subjects.

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Published date: 1 February 2011
Organisations: Geography

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 177859
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/177859
PURE UUID: ff4840a8-9608-4ff1-bd32-02ca47babbc3
ORCID for Emma J. Roe: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4674-2133

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Date deposited: 23 Mar 2011 14:45
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:52

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Contributors

Author: Beth Greenhough
Author: Emma J. Roe ORCID iD

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