Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone
This project is an investigation of the issue of human biomedical enhancement, taking human growth hormone as a case study. Growth hormone is mainly used to increase the adult height of short children, and is also employed illicitly as an anti-ageing treatment. Both these applications are viewed by...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2008
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10631/ |
| _version_ | 1848791106951577600 |
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| author | Morrison, Michael |
| author_facet | Morrison, Michael |
| author_sort | Morrison, Michael |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This project is an investigation of the issue of human biomedical enhancement, taking human growth hormone as a case study. Growth hormone is mainly used to increase the adult height of short children, and is also employed illicitly as an anti-ageing treatment. Both these applications are viewed by bioethicists as going beyond the scope of therapeutic medicine by enhancing normal human traits rather than treating diseases and as such are considered ethically suspect. This project adopts a comparative and retrospective stance, examining the socio-historical development of human growth hormone in the US, where much of the impetus for enhancement uses has originated, and also in the UK where the potential for enhancement uses of pharmaceuticals and other medical technologies is a growing concern.
This project combines a social constructivist approach to bodies and disease categories with science and technology studies theory on the emergence and shaping of new (medical) technologies. Research focuses on the development of growth hormone as a medical technology and the construction of the diagnostic categories that define the illness it is employed to treat. A combination of archive material and contemporary interview data is used to investigate and identify factors that shape the way some applications of hGH have come to be viewed as legitimate, accepted practices while others remain unstable and controversial.
Enhancement suggests an inappropriate use of biomedicine, but in the case of growth hormone at least, the determination of medical need and entitlement is shown to be more than a matter of instrumental measurements. It is a contingent and socially shaped procedure that is applied in heterogeneous ways at different sites in the networks of healthcare provision. This technique provides a different model for thinking about those biomedical practices labelled as enhancement, which does not share the limitations of that framing. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:23:15Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-10631 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:23:15Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-106312025-02-28T11:09:01Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10631/ Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone Morrison, Michael This project is an investigation of the issue of human biomedical enhancement, taking human growth hormone as a case study. Growth hormone is mainly used to increase the adult height of short children, and is also employed illicitly as an anti-ageing treatment. Both these applications are viewed by bioethicists as going beyond the scope of therapeutic medicine by enhancing normal human traits rather than treating diseases and as such are considered ethically suspect. This project adopts a comparative and retrospective stance, examining the socio-historical development of human growth hormone in the US, where much of the impetus for enhancement uses has originated, and also in the UK where the potential for enhancement uses of pharmaceuticals and other medical technologies is a growing concern. This project combines a social constructivist approach to bodies and disease categories with science and technology studies theory on the emergence and shaping of new (medical) technologies. Research focuses on the development of growth hormone as a medical technology and the construction of the diagnostic categories that define the illness it is employed to treat. A combination of archive material and contemporary interview data is used to investigate and identify factors that shape the way some applications of hGH have come to be viewed as legitimate, accepted practices while others remain unstable and controversial. Enhancement suggests an inappropriate use of biomedicine, but in the case of growth hormone at least, the determination of medical need and entitlement is shown to be more than a matter of instrumental measurements. It is a contingent and socially shaped procedure that is applied in heterogeneous ways at different sites in the networks of healthcare provision. This technique provides a different model for thinking about those biomedical practices labelled as enhancement, which does not share the limitations of that framing. 2008 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10631/1/MMorrison_Thesis_2008.pdf Morrison, Michael (2008) Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Science and technology studies human Growth Hormone bioethics biomedical enhancement sociology of health and illness social construction |
| spellingShingle | Science and technology studies human Growth Hormone bioethics biomedical enhancement sociology of health and illness social construction Morrison, Michael Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| title | Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| title_full | Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| title_fullStr | Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| title_short | Beyond therapy? Investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| title_sort | beyond therapy? investigating biomedical enhancement in the case of human growth hormone |
| topic | Science and technology studies human Growth Hormone bioethics biomedical enhancement sociology of health and illness social construction |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10631/ |