Concepts that refer to trends like globalization and medicalization
have, of late, become a hallmark of public debates. The logic of such
concepts is that the same word can refer both to good and bad
developments, partly depending on the chosen viewpoint. Hardly anyone
opposes the global enforcement of human rights, but the global liberation
of trade is sometimes viewed with suspicion. In a similar vein, advances
in medicine are seldom seen as a bad thing, but medical solutions to
social issues can be seen as problematic.This research was funded by Ethical and Social Aspects of
Bioinformatics (ESABI), a project coordinated by Professor Matti
Häyry and financed between 2004 and 2007 by the Academy of Finland
(SA 105139). The authors also acknowledge the stimulus and support of the
European project on delimiting the research concept and the research
activities (EU-RECA) sponsored by the European Commission, DG-Research, as
part of the Science and Society research program—6th Framework in
the preparation of this paper.