Peering from the Shadows: Stem Cell Research and the Quest for Regulation in Argentina

Science has long been contentious and disruptive. Where it threatens entrenched powers, it has been muzzled, discredited, or simply outlawed. The pursuit of scientific research in social settings where bodies traditionally suspicious of science are politically powerful is doubly challenging when democratic traditions are weak or participative opportunities few, for then there is less opportunity to call upon the informed public to generate support which might circumnavigate the barriers created by these powers. In such situations, researchers can become isolated and marginalised, and potentially fruitful avenues of inquiry can be close off, and science can go ‘underground’ removing it from professional and public scrutiny alike. Drawing on evidence generated in the GET: Social Values Project, this paper considers the Argentine context and the general position of Argentine stem cell researchers as perceived by those researchers and non-researchers who are close to the field. In doing so, it argues that there is an important role for the law in supporting researchers and correcting the science environment, which, in Argentina, lacks transparency, dialogical spaces, appropriate policy influence, and more.