Christine Hauskeller is Professor of Philosophy, teaching philosophy of science, bioethics, and feminist theory at the University of Exeter, UK. She conducts empirical philosophical studies on the processes of knowledge production in the life sciences and their intersections with different forms of valuation and normativity. Prof Hauskeller has published widely on stem cell research for the past twenty years and has led many projects on the subject area. Appointments to advisory and governance boards include the UK BBSRC Science and Society Panel, and the German Federal Government’s Central Ethics Committee Stem Cell Research. Arne Manzeschke is Professor of Anthropology and Ethics at the Lutheran University of Applied Sciences Nuremberg, Germany, Director of the Institute of Ethics and Anthropology in Health Care, President of Societas Ethica, European Society for research in ethics, and he is vice chairman of the Bavarian Ethics Commission on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. Arne was a member of ForIPS – Bavarian Research Network Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. He conducts ethical research in the field of bioethics and the ethics of technology, especially digitalization and the human-machine-interaction. Anja Pichl is a doctoral student at Bielefeld University, Germany, in the DFG research training group 2073 Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research. Her dissertation investigates the limits of biological knowledge using the example of stem cell research. Together with Arne Manzeschke she organized an international and interdisciplinary summer school on pluripotent stem cells in 2015, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
"""A scholarly, and profoundly interdisciplinary, approach to stem cell research that stands the conventional model of scientific development on its head. Far from offering only a secondary and peripheral commentary on more technical matters, questions of ethics, epistemology and socio-technical process are given proper significance. Cells and clinical practices, philosophy and social science flow together in this fascinating and very timely collection. As the editors convincingly argue, the social sciences and humanities do not simply study stem cell research. They also help configure it."" Alan Irwin, Professor in the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark ""Reducing stem cell research to issues of the moral status of embryos is not grasping its dimensions. This excellent interdisciplinary book highlights the central roles epistemic, social, ethical and political factors play in its formation and recent developments. An essential work for all who want to understand this life science in its societal complexity."" Ilhan Ilkilic, Professor of Health Sciences, Istanbul University, and Member of the German Ethics Council ""I think it is a most interesting book, providing new, innovative and very important perspective at stem cell research/science. It provides a panoramic account of the forces at play in its constitution: disciplines, techniques, specialties, commercial interests, medical concerns, ethical and political factors and more. It does so stressing complementarities and diversity in the dynamics of this wide variety of factors, without privileging one set of factors over another. A non-reductionist, comprehensive understanding of the development of contemporary science, and medical science in particular requires such a broad grasp."" Rob Hagendijk, Professor of STS, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands"