The human capacity to reflect and decide: Bioethics and the reconfiguration of the research subject in the British biomedical sciences

• Published in: Social studies of science Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 348 - 368
• Main Author: Reubi, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Sage Publications 01.06.2012; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Bioethical Issues; Bioethics; Biology; Biomedical research; Biomedical Research - ethics; Biomedicine; British literature; Consumer research; Decision Making; Decisions; Ethics committees; Experiments; Foucault, Michel; History of science and technology; History, 20th Century; Humans; Identity; Informed consent; Informed Consent - ethics; Informed Consent - history; Life sciences; Literature; Medical ethics; Medical research; Medicine; Narratives; Paternalism; Patients; Personal Autonomy; Physicians; Research ethics; Research Subjects - psychology; Researcher Subject Relations; Subjectivity; United Kingdom; biomedicine; subjectivity; research subject; bioethics; identity; biomedical research ethics; Medicine; Bioethics; Research

This article examines how a fundamental element of the British bioethical assemblage - the literature on informed consent published between 1980 and 2000, a period when bioethics became a powerful force in the UK – has influenced contemporary understandings of the research subject. Drawing on Foucau...