A talk about the fascinating history of the UK's famous '14-day rule' governing human embryo research
In the context of current debates over 'stembryos', the popular moniker for new human embryo modelling techniques, and the corresponding call for the extension of the 14-day rule, we ask what this case study reveals about 'the sociology of biological translation'? Sarah Franklin and Emily Jackson, an anthropologist and a legal scholar, argue that Mary Warnock and Anne McLaren, architects of the UK's pathbreaking regulation of human fertilisation and embryology, devised a unique biogovernance infrastructure that has stood the test of time because it embeds a reciprocal social contract into statutory legislation, and that this framework continues to yield valuable lessons for the future.
The 14-Day Rule and Embryo Research: a sociology of biological translation by Sarah Franklin and Emily Jackson, with a Foreword by Peter Braude, is published by Taylor and Francis, and scheduled to be launched in May, 2024.
Professor Sarah Franklin is Chair of Sociology at the University of Cambridge where she directs the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc). Emily Jackson OBE is Professor of Law at the LSE and a former Deputy Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Professor Jonathan Michie, President of Kellogg College will chair the event.
