TY - JOUR

T1 - Immunitary bioeconomy

T2 - the economisation of life in the international cord blood market

AU - Brown, Nik

AU - Machin, Laura

AU - McLeod, Danae

N1 - Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2011/4

Y1 - 2011/4

N2 - This paper examines an emerging bioeconomy centred on the international banking and trade in cord blood. Since the late 1980s cord blood has been used in an expanding range of treatments and as an alternative to the use of bone marrow stem cells. This is particularly the case in treating ethnic minority populations who have historically been under-represented in bone marrow registries. The paper explores the mobilisation and commercialisation of an increasingly important bioeconomic resource with cord blood units trading internationally at high prices. This is a market mediated through a sophisticated global network of immunologically typed and matched bodily matter in which immunity has become a form of 'corporeal currency'. Based on recent international figures we reflect upon the balance of trade between imports and exports across the world's cord blood bioeconomy. Theoretically, this case is, we suggest, an extension of what Roberto Esposito (2008) has termed an 'immunitary paradigm' in which immunity has become the basis for new forms of bioeconomic flow, circulation and exchange. Esposito (2008). Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

AB - This paper examines an emerging bioeconomy centred on the international banking and trade in cord blood. Since the late 1980s cord blood has been used in an expanding range of treatments and as an alternative to the use of bone marrow stem cells. This is particularly the case in treating ethnic minority populations who have historically been under-represented in bone marrow registries. The paper explores the mobilisation and commercialisation of an increasingly important bioeconomic resource with cord blood units trading internationally at high prices. This is a market mediated through a sophisticated global network of immunologically typed and matched bodily matter in which immunity has become a form of 'corporeal currency'. Based on recent international figures we reflect upon the balance of trade between imports and exports across the world's cord blood bioeconomy. Theoretically, this case is, we suggest, an extension of what Roberto Esposito (2008) has termed an 'immunitary paradigm' in which immunity has become the basis for new forms of bioeconomic flow, circulation and exchange. Esposito (2008). Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

KW - Biological Specimen Banks

KW - Commerce

KW - Costs and Cost Analysis

KW - Fetal Blood

KW - Humans

KW - Internationality

KW - Politics

KW - Registries

KW - Sociology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79953742935&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.024

DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.024

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 21398003

VL - 72

SP - 1115

EP - 1122

JO - Social Science and Medicine

JF - Social Science and Medicine

SN - 1873-5347

IS - 7

ER -