Manchester Science Festival 2012: Wasted Conversation, MOSI, 30/10/12
Chaired by Prof Andy Miah with artist Gina Czarnecki and stem cell biologist Dr Rankin
The talk is illuminating. Gina talks about her interested in discarded biology in asking the question what other purpose than medical science could discarded biology be used for? Gina outlines her personal historical interest stemming from her father being in concentration camps during the holocaust and noting details of where the body parts such as fat went to.
On donor consent, Gina notes that it’s easier to obtain donations of fat than bone marrow for example.
Sarah talks about the public perception of embryonic stem cell harvesting and the recent Nobel Prize winning research of Japan based Shinya Yamanaka which has proved stem cells can be grown from skin rather than tissue specific matching. She is also very skeptical of private stem cell banks and therapy noting that private clinics offering IVF treatment often promote banking cord blood for potential future treatment whereas the NHS do not even mention such services.
On milk teeth, Sarah notes that they contain very few stem cells and Gina talks about their symbolic nature in various cultures. Anglo Saxons wore them as war necklaces. In the Uk there is the tooth fairy and France the tooth mouse. In Thai culture, milk teeth are thrown on top of the house for beauty and buried for wisdom. The is a strong connection to the afterlife in African culture.
In defining what makes the human tissue waste; Gina describes the waste from medical research that was going to be incinerated. There is also the fat from liposuction procedures that would similarly be destroyed and milk teeth that children loose. Andy also recounts a personal history of enquiring about banking cord blood and describes the lack of resource and system in place to currently enable this to happen.
The panel also touch upon belief systems and taste in the quest for human waste tissue and the difference between science ethics and ethics in art practice. As a result of this project, and encountering a gap in knowledge and procedure, Gina and Sarah have set up an Art Ethics Advisory Panel.
