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Between Neutrality and Engagement: A Case Study of Recruitment to Pharmacogenomic Research in Denmark

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

Mette N. Svendsen  and
Lene Koch
Mette N. Svendsen
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, Department of Health Services Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark E-mail: mesv@pubhealth.ku.dk
Lene Koch
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Health, Department of Health Services Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark E-mail: mesv@pubhealth.ku.dk
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Abstract

Post-genomic research relies on blood samples and health information from great numbers of individuals as well as on access to medical records. Studies of collecting and banking bio-resources have increasingly focused on the policy and commodification issues that arise when human DNA enters the information economy. Yet, what has been given much less attention is the process through which citizens are recruited to contribute to post-genomic research. This article analyses practices of recruiting psychiatric patients to a pharmacogenomic research centre in Denmark. It argues that recruitment activities may be conceived as interpellation practices that ‘hail’ individual patients and ask them to place themselves in relationships to other citizens and state institutions by giving researchers access to blood samples, medical records and sensitive life-and-illness information. The interpellation practices studied demonstrate a tension between techniques that operate through distance (sending out letters with information and consent forms) and techniques that operate through presence (making phone calls to patients). These techniques are not simply seen as contrasting ethical conducts, but as complementary and coexisting ways of constituting spatial and social state–citizen relationships.

Keywords

Ethics as PracticeInterpellationPharmacogenomicsRecruitment
Type
Articles
Information
BioSocieties , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 399 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2008

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