Aceptado como ponencia a la conferencia del ECPR en Helsinki (7-12 mayo 2007). Abril 2007.
Focusing on the issue of genetic diagnostic testing and drawing on a
series of semi-structured interviews with genetists, epidemiologists
and clinicians in Spain, this paper highlights the limits of an
individualistic approach to biomedicine, embedded in a larger process
of biomedicalization of the health care system and geneticization of
the medical research. In contrast to the current approaches on
biomedical regulation, generally based either on bioethical
considerations or on technical expertise, the present work suggests the
necessity of integrating the decision making process with new
approaches studying the social and political consequences of the
massive implementation of biomedical technologies. Through the
restoration of the centrality of the political discourse, new and
effective systems of governance may allow the fertile participation of
all the actors involved in the production, promotion, regulation and
consumption of the new biotechnological treatments whilst, at the
same time, reconcile high participation with decisional efficacy.