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Emerging Science, Emerging Democracy: Stem Cell Research and Policy in Taiwan

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Emerging Science, Emerging Democracy: Stem Cell Research and Policy in Taiwan Jennifer A. Liu University of Waterloo Science policymakers in newly democratic Taiwan grapple with a central ten- sion of how to construct policies that both conform to international standards and properly represent Taiwan’s people. Based on more than sixteen months of ethnographic research, over a hundred interviews, and archival data, I exam- ine how stem cell research-related policymaking was assembled in Taiwan. I pay particular attention to the intersections of global and local, and to artic- ulations of democracy, sovereignty, and identity as they relate to stem cell re- search governance. While much has been written on science and democracy in established democratic societies, relatively little has addressed the relationship between emergent democracies and emergent sciences. I suggest that studies in Taiwan as it transitions from technocratic to democratic authority help to make visible the diverse logics and multiple considerations that shape both biotech and its governance in an emergent science democracy. 1. Introduction “You are interested in ethics,” the clinician said, “there are problems with medical ethics in Taiwan.” It was 2005, shortly after I had moved to Taiwan. A little later, a professor told me of a university hospital that served as a site for a transnational clinical trial run by a pharmaceutical company. He I thank Heather Douglas for convening the excellent workshop that brought together a diverse and productive group of scholars and this series of papers. I also thank most deeply those working on and in Taiwanese science who shared their stories, thoughts, and expe- riences with me, some are named here, many are not. Finally, this research was generously funded by the Fulbright Foundation, a Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship, The UC Berkeley STS Center, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences Endowment Fund. I also deeply appreciate thought- ful input from Adia Benton, Thurka Sangaramoorthy and two anonymous reviewers. Perspectives on Science 2016, vol. 24, no. 5 ©2016 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology doi:10.1162/POSC_a_00225 609 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/POSC_a_00225 by guest on 01 October 2021 610 Emerging Science: Stem Cell Research in Taiwan said that since no informed consent procedure was in place at that time, the hospital had simply obtained employer consent. “That’s why companies want to come to Taiwan to do clinical testing, because you can do anything here— things that can’t be done in the US. That’s why everyone wants to come to Taiwan.” These statements may seem, at first, to indicate a lack of concern in Taiwan for medical and scientific ethics. In fact, they signaled a growing frus- tration and urgency felt by many in the scientific and medical communities that regulation and infrastructure were deeply necessary. These statements thus reflect, rather, a growing concern with matters of bioethics. Science policymaking in Taiwan reflects local concerns about how national science articulates (with) sovereignty, democracy, and identity. While a significant body of scholarly literature examines the relationship between science and society in democratic countries, relatively little ad- dresses the relationship between emergent democracy and emergent science. In this paper, I examine the situated ethics of stem cell research and policy- making in Taiwan at different scales. Policymakers in Taiwan face a central tension between international conformity and accounting for Taiwanese specificity, one prominent strand of which is built around being not Chinese. An attention to the nexus of emergent science and emergent democracy makes visible situated and local considerations that may be understated or taken for granted in established scientificdemocracies. Full electoral democracy began in Taiwan in 1996, and while the gov- ernment operates autonomously, China still claims Taiwan as its province. The One-China policy denies Taiwan’s sovereignty and blocks international recognition of Taiwan in many venues. In this young democracy struggling with newfound freedoms, stem cell research policymaking has high stakes. It conjoins concerns about science and democracy in ways that are specifictoits geopolitical situation. Taiwanese policymakers grapple with a central ques- tion of how they might construct policies that at once conform to interna- tional standards and properly represent Taiwan’s people. In this paper, I examine how stem cell research policies were made in a newly democratic society. In addition to providing an important comparative account of science policymaking in Asia, it offers a specific example of how emergent biomedical sciences come to be governed in an emergent democracy under- going a transition from technocratic rule. Stem cell research and policymak- ing in Taiwan, even as they appear to follow similar paths as those of other countries, have different stakes and are expressive of specific concerns that are configured in relation to multiple others. Specifically, while Taiwan’s science and policies on human embryo re- search and stem cell research resemble significantly those of other coun- tries, they represent something that is nonetheless uniquely Taiwanese in both what they signify and how they came to be. Taiwanese science Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/POSC_a_00225 by guest on 01 October 2021 Perspectives on Science 611 develops in relation to specifically Taiwanese concerns about modernity, iden- tity, and sovereignty. Modernity is imagined in various ways, but science and democratic governance are important components of any rendering of moder- nity in a Taiwanese context. Fractious identity debates about what it means to be Taiwanese, and who counts as authentically Taiwanese, are framed mainly to distinguish Taiwan from China. Such debates play out in a context in which Taiwan’s sovereignty, and thus the recognition of its very nationhood, is under constant challenge in international contexts. Taiwan’s stem cell pol- icy is thus not only about regulating science; it is deeply marked by broader political considerations. Examining the ways in which this specific biotech field came to be regulated at a particular time provides an example of the sociality of science as well as the interface of science and emergent democracy. In this paper, I examine the work that went into making the policies and the context in which they were made. First, I offer a very brief review of the literature on democracy and science. Second, I provide a brief overview of Taiwan’s geopolitical situation and recent work done on science policy there. Third, engaging with the concepts of global assemblages and situated ethics, I address the interplay of the local and global in Taiwan’sstemcellpolicy- making. Fourth, I provide three stories relevant to stem cell research policy- making there: one is a comparison of two scientists’ divergent approaches to the ethics of stem cell research progress; the second addresses a public survey; and the third examines the significance of Taiwanese involvement with the development of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) guidelines within the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). Finally, I suggest that even as Taiwan’s policy documents are in themselves relatively unremarkable compared with those of other countries, they represent a sig- nificant shift in science governance in Taiwan and offer an important example of science policymaking at the nexus of emergent science and democracy. This is, then, an account of how Taiwanese policymakers addressed a central concern for science governance—how to construct policies that at once conform to international standards and are appropriate for local pub- lics. This takes place in the context of enhanced engagement from new democratic publics who increasingly demand accountability from their leaders. By adhering to best practices in science governance, Taiwanese sci- ence serves to locate Taiwan alongside established scientific democracies, buttressing a Taiwanese modernity while simultaneously distancing them- selves from both the “wild Asian ethics” discourses circulating periodically in the West and China’s sovereignty threats. 2. Science and Democracy Since the 1975 Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA research orga- nized by Paul Berg, the relationship between sciences and their various Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/POSC_a_00225 by guest on 01 October 2021 612 Emerging Science: Stem Cell Research in Taiwan publics has become the subject of a proliferating body of social research. Controversial scientific projects have been subject to greater public scru- tiny and public engagement has become an important marker of democ- ratic science policymaking. Still, relatively little has been written about science policy in newly democratic contexts. Taiwan is a relative newcomer to both democracy and the global knowledge economy; it is, as Chia-ling Wu (2012) notes, a “latecomer” to science policymaking. Such policymaking takes place amidst contentious struggles to define a national identity, one that, for many, is specifically not Chinese (Liu 2010). A burgeoning scholarly literature addresses the relationship between science and society in democratic societies. Now long ago, Robert Merton (1973 [1942]) elaborated his thesis that good science and good (i.e., dem-
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