Species of Contagion: Animal-to-Human Transplantation in the Age of Emerging Infectious Disease (Health, Technology and Society)

Species of Contagion examines the political and social implications of xenotransplantation for bodies, nations, and species. Scientists are demonstrating a renewed interest in developing transplants for humans with tissues from pigs, with the aid of genetic engineering techniques, immunosuppressant drugs, and novel cellular technologies. Yet, some argue that these transspecies promiscuities threaten to enable new viruses to emerge in human populations. Drawing on the later works of Foucault, this book analyses contemporary power relations in animal-to-human transplantation research, ranging across governmental regulation, scientific understandings of infectious disease, and animal ethics. While many xenotransplantation practices resonate with a security approach that renders uncertainty an inherent condition of life and encourages adaptation across species boundaries, government regulation and industry also reinscribe sovereign boundaries of bodies, species, and nations. Species of Contagion illustrates the variation in the cultural and scientific imaginaries that governments and industry bring to bear on the problematic of xenotransplantation. Series Editors’ Preface 7 Acknowledgements 9 Contents 11 1: Introduction: Forms of Contagion 12 Biocapital and Trans-species Adaptation 28 Structure of the Book 30 References 40 2: 100% Pure Pigs: New Zealand and the Cultivation of Pure Auckland Island Pigs for Xenotransplantation 49 100% Pure New Zealand 52 Nation Branding 52 The Narrative of Original Purity 57 Xenotransplantation and the Auckland Island Pigs 61 Auckland Island Pigs 63 100% Pure Pigs? 65 Spaces of Purity: SPF and Geopolitical Discourses 67 Agriculture and Geopolitics of Purity 71 Conclusion 75 References 80 3: Hierarchies of Valuable Life: Positioning Pigs and Primates in UK Bioethics 88 UK Xenotransplantation Ethics Discourses and Regulation 91 Apes, Ethics, and Science 94 Liberal Bioethics and Non-human Animals 96 Pigs, Personhood, and Knowledge Practices 101 Thinking and Language 101 Self-awareness 102 Episodic Memory 104 Human Exceptionalism, Persons, and Laboratory Research 106 Xenotransplantation and Liberal Bioethics 109 Sovereignty, Biopolitics, and the Apparatus of the Person 111 Conclusion 113 References 119 4: Circulating Non-human Tissues: Xenotransplantation and Security in the United States 126 Emerging Infectious Disease 131 Xenotransplantation and Emergence 137 Societies of Security 141 Laika: Cultivating Animal Capital 149 Conclusion 154 References 159 5: Ecological and Organismic Body Politics: The Moratorium on Xenotransplantation in Australia 167 Organismic Body Politics 171 Australian Moratorium 179 The Sovereign Moratorium 184 Australian Imaginary 189 Conclusion 195 References 205 6: Conclusion 213 References 221 Index 224