Search results

AbstractStates tightly regulate citizens' bodies, their actions, and biological material, including organs, blood, and gametes, and this political governance involves a complex set of relationships between the state and its citizens. While new technologies persistently redefine family relationships, regulation and legislation are used to hold these fixed and static. Within sperm donation, the recipients transform into parents to form families, while the donor's identity and sexuality are considered to be unaffected by the action of donating sperm or gaining the status of sperm donor. Despite official efforts to sanitize the process, the practice of sperm donation is characterized in some quarters by efforts to evade or outflank the official restrictions on it. This paper explores the circumvention of such control, through examining informal sperm donation occurring outside of state regulation.

AbstractInstitutionalisation has played a key role in Irish social policy, however there is still a lack of clarity regarding the relationship between the governing structures (government departments, medical and education regulators etc.) and those who ran the institutions, such as the Catholic convent institutions for 'fallen' women. Specifically a question remains as to the precise logic for transferring girls and women into these settings. This paper expands the debate by exploring the existence of Catholic Convent industries in Ireland through the lenses of spiritual eugenics in the early 20th Century. In contrast to Anglo‐American eugenic practices based on sterilisation and birth control, Latin eugenic practices accepted by the Catholic Church were based on removing women from temptation and may have produced a necessary commitment to long‐term closed institutions. The paper offers a brief description of the differences between eugenics aimed at biological fitness and the practices aimed at spiritual promotion.

AbstractAs with other areas of the social world, academic research in the contemporary healthcare setting has undergone adaptation and change. For example, research methods are increasingly incorporating citizen participation in the research process, and there has been an increase in collaborative research that brings academic and industry partners together. There have been numerous positive outcomes associated with both of these growing methodological and collaborative processes; nonetheless, both bring with them ethical considerations that require careful thought and attention. This paper addresses the ethical considerations that research teams must consider when using participatory methods and/or when working with industry and outlines a novel informed consent matrix designed to maintain the high ethical standard to which academic research in the healthcare arena has traditionally adhered.