How to fix a broken heart: Stem cells, aging and cardiac disease



Stem cell research has received a lot of attention lately by the media, patient groups, ethics committees, and by social scientists. We want to look at one aspect within the general hype around stem cells - the making of certainty, and this specifically in one part of stem cell research that is based on a number of strong certainties: the application of autologous bone marrow stem cells for heart disease. Stem cells - and especially embryonic stem cells - have been analysed in the social sciences mainly  as a general phenomenon, with all its regulatory and ethical implications. Few social scientists have looked at one specific pathology such as cardiac diseases.