Public Understanding of Genetics (PUG)

The project Public Understanding of Genetics (PUG) aimed to investigate the way in which different publics across Europe identify the social implications of new genetic technologies. It focused on a range of sites in which the public understanding of genetics is produced and mobilized: for example, the media, the clinic, community settings, parliamentary and legal debates, and within campaigning and 'self-help' groups. A series of case studies in seven European countries (Britain, Spain, Italy, France, Lithuania, Norway and Hungary) provided new empirical data on the way in which a variety of 'publics' mobilize, or not, genetics. Findings from the case studies informed an investigation of the relationship between genetics and kinship, genetics and race, and genetics and governance.

The CEU team of the project (Prof. Judit Sándor, Principal Investigator and Enikő Demény, Research Assistant) has been involved mainly in the work-package 3 of the project, entitled Governance and Normative Understanding of Genetics in Europe.

During the project, the research team has monitored biomedical norms (ethical and legal) in the territory of the European Union and Council of Europe in the field of genetics (including genetic testing, screening, stem cell research, gene banks, gene therapy and patenting). Furthermore, based on the systematic review of the relevant legal sources and literature, it has identified ethical and legal principles in the field of study within the European Union and within the Council of Europe, and compared and analyzed laws, legislative proposals, reports and cases decided by the European Court. This collection of data formed the base of CELAB’s Biolaw Database.

Publications resulted from this project are:

Sándor, Judit (2009) Réglementation libérale et focus sur l’ enfant. La procréation médicalement assistée en Hongrie. In Enric Porqueres i Gené (ed.) Défis contemporains de la paranté. Paris: EHESS, pp. 107-124.

Demény, Enikő (2009) Loving Mothers at Work: Raising Other’s Children and Building Families with the Intention of Love and Take Care. In J. Edwards and C. Salazar (eds.) European Kinship in the Age of Biotechnology. Oxford: Berghahn Press, pp. 128-143.

For more information about the project please consult the website:

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/pug/