On the omnipresence, diversity, and elusiveness of values in the life sciences and medicine

Biomedicine – life sciences and medicine – are saturated with values. Valuations of life are intermingled with values such as scientific reputation, profitability, fairness, competition, and accessibility of care. Reciprocally, the practices of biomedicine produce values. For instance: public health, the preservation of endangered species, profitability of tamed animals, usability of clinical data, or bodily autonomy. This chapter begins outlining an approach to the study of values in practice. Thus it takes an interest not primarily in values as given entities, but rather how they are made. The exercise is rooted in an ambition to consider 'values' as something to be explained and explored rather than as given entities with explanatory power. In this the chapter tries to account for how peoples' actions draw on values, and how agents' actions and reactions come to enact values.

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Dussauge, Isabelle, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, Francis Lee, and Steve Woolgar. 2015. "On the omnipresence, diversity, and elusiveness of values in the life sciences and medicine." In Value Practices in the Life Sciences and Medicine, edited by Isabelle Dussauge, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, and Francis Lee, 1-28. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199689583.003.0001