Priscilla Song
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174778
- eISBN:
- 9781400885282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174778.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter follows the journey of people living with paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions as they undergo fetal cell transplantation in China. It provides ethnographic insight on how these ...
More
This chapter follows the journey of people living with paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions as they undergo fetal cell transplantation in China. It provides ethnographic insight on how these patients have operationalized hope in Beijing hospital wards, immersing themselves in the practical details of navigating an unfamiliar medical system while circumventing existential debates over the moral status of aborted fetuses. It begins by analyzing the online surgical report threads of the first three foreigners to receive Chinese neurosurgeon Dr. Huang Hongyun's fetal cell transplantation. All three were men from the United States who had suffered cervical-level spinal cord injuries. It then incorporates the experiences of a wide range of other fetal cell recipients in order to address the key points of disjuncture that Dr. Huang's foreign patients had to negotiate during their cross-cultural encounters in Beijing: conflicting expectations about caregiving, moral qualms about the use of fetal cells, and the embodied vicissitudes of experimental surgery.Less
This chapter follows the journey of people living with paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions as they undergo fetal cell transplantation in China. It provides ethnographic insight on how these patients have operationalized hope in Beijing hospital wards, immersing themselves in the practical details of navigating an unfamiliar medical system while circumventing existential debates over the moral status of aborted fetuses. It begins by analyzing the online surgical report threads of the first three foreigners to receive Chinese neurosurgeon Dr. Huang Hongyun's fetal cell transplantation. All three were men from the United States who had suffered cervical-level spinal cord injuries. It then incorporates the experiences of a wide range of other fetal cell recipients in order to address the key points of disjuncture that Dr. Huang's foreign patients had to negotiate during their cross-cultural encounters in Beijing: conflicting expectations about caregiving, moral qualms about the use of fetal cells, and the embodied vicissitudes of experimental surgery.
Priscilla Song
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174778
- eISBN:
- 9781400885282
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174778.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how changes in the political economy of health care have encouraged enterprising Chinese clinicians to experiment with lucrative biomedical interventions for foreign patients. ...
More
This chapter examines how changes in the political economy of health care have encouraged enterprising Chinese clinicians to experiment with lucrative biomedical interventions for foreign patients. It follows the career trajectory of New Century Hospital's lead neurosurgeon, Chinese neurosurgeon Dr. Huang Hongyun, and contrasts his experiences with those of other clinicians in order to illustrate the ethnographic contours of medical entrepreneurialism in urban China. Recounting their struggles to balance individual interests, professional ethics, and global ambitions, it demonstrates how the pursuit of high-tech therapies by medical entrepreneurs is not just about making money but also about professional ambitions and nationalistic pride—a cultural phenomenon framed as technonationalism.Less
This chapter examines how changes in the political economy of health care have encouraged enterprising Chinese clinicians to experiment with lucrative biomedical interventions for foreign patients. It follows the career trajectory of New Century Hospital's lead neurosurgeon, Chinese neurosurgeon Dr. Huang Hongyun, and contrasts his experiences with those of other clinicians in order to illustrate the ethnographic contours of medical entrepreneurialism in urban China. Recounting their struggles to balance individual interests, professional ethics, and global ambitions, it demonstrates how the pursuit of high-tech therapies by medical entrepreneurs is not just about making money but also about professional ambitions and nationalistic pride—a cultural phenomenon framed as technonationalism.
