Lehrinhalte
Thousands of years ago, humans began to preserve biological substances and bodies beyond their natural lifespan. But it is only within the last few decades that the possibility has been created of permanently storing living cells, tissues and organs by putting them into artificial "hibernation" (suspended animation). Many achievements in modern medicine and biotechnology, such as the development and supply of blood reserves or vaccines, are now based on this refrigeration technology. But our food supply is also inconceivable without the use of cold preservation. In addition to the everyday use of refrigerators and freezers, agriculturally important plant varieties and animal breeds are bred and preserved with the help of seed banks. Particularly in view of climate change and a feared extinction of species, biobanks are increasingly serving as a means of safeguarding biodiversity.
But what exactly is "biobanking", what kind of object is cold-preserved life and what are the technical, social and natural philosophical implications? We want to discuss these questions in the seminar with regard to some paradigmatic examples in the context of selected literature on the topic. The main focus will be on the question of what happens to "life" when it has become the content of an "archive" - which in turn needs to be more precisely defined in terms of an actual function itself: Are biobanks rather "treasuries" that merely serve to preserve valuable things or are they rather "banks" that generate these values in the first place by making investments in the future, speculating? What kind of "value" is it anyway that is preserved or created in biobanks? And what role does it play in life in modern societies? In addition to the scientific foundations of cryopreservation, we will therefore also address questions of value theory and problems of a biopolitics of cooled life.
Thousands of years ago, humans began to preserve biological substances and bodies beyond their natural lifespan. But it is only within the last few decades that the possibility has been created of permanently storing living cells, tissues and organs by putting them into artificial "hibernation" (suspended animation). Many achievements in modern medicine and biotechnology, such as the development and supply of blood reserves or vaccines, are now based on this refrigeration technology. But our food supply is also inconceivable without the use of cold preservation. In addition to the everyday use of refrigerators and freezers, agriculturally important plant varieties and animal breeds are bred and preserved with the help of seed banks. Particularly in view of climate change and a feared extinction of species, biobanks are increasingly serving as a means of safeguarding biodiversity.
But what exactly is "biobanking", what kind of object is cold-preserved life and what are the technical, social and natural philosophical implications? We want to discuss these questions in the seminar with regard to some paradigmatic examples in the context of selected literature on the topic. The main focus will be on the question of what happens to "life" when it has become the content of an "archive" - which in turn needs to be more precisely defined in terms of an actual function itself: Are biobanks rather "treasuries" that merely serve to preserve valuable things or are they rather "banks" that generate these values in the first place by making investments in the future, speculating? What kind of "value" is it anyway that is preserved or created in biobanks? And what role does it play in life in modern societies? In addition to the scientific foundations of cryopreservation, we will therefore also address questions of value theory and problems of a biopolitics of cooled life.
Semester: Verão 2022