Fragile castles: the paradox of research politics, scientific progress, and the mutation of medical knowledge.
This paper is based on fieldwork done from 1996-1999 in different locations among village communities from Central Anatolia afflicted with the deadly malignancy of mesothelioma. Medical research has long established the relationship between mesothelioma and the environment; yet in earlier work correlations deduced through my genealogies provide evidence of a possible genetic cofactor causing these cancer deaths. This paper illustrates how medical research becomes an arena for local and global political interests and how the disruption of the doctor-cancer patient relationship impedes medical research. Methods include illness and clinical narratives, kinship charts and pedigrees, and observation of involved doctors and patients in multiple sites and geographical locations. Under focus are the anthropologist's involvement in global biomedical research and her interconnectedness with its political events.
Roushdy-Hammady
Iman
I
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27704, USA. imanroushdy@yahoo.com
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental / Q000009:adverse effects; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D036281:Genetic Research; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D033262:Narration; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology; D017641:Zeolites / Q000009:adverse effects
D000393:Air Pollutants; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental; C083174:erionite; D017641:Zeolites