Emily Postan, MA, MLitt, LLM, PhD
Deputy Director of the Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law
University of Edinburgh Law School

Abstract: Increasing quantities of information about our health, bodies, and biological relationships are being generated by health technologies, research, and surveillance. This escalation presents challenges to us all when it comes to deciding how to manage this information and what should be disclosed to the very people it describes. This talk discusses the ethical imperative to take seriously the potential impacts on our identities of encountering bioinformation about ourselves. Dr. Postan argues that identity interests in accessing personal bioinformation are currently under-protected in law and often linked to problematic bio-essentialist assumptions. Drawing on a picture of identity constructed through embodied self-narratives, and examples of people's encounters with diverse kinds of information, she will address these gaps. Her book provides a robust account of the source, scope, and ethical significance of our identity-related interests in accessing – and not accessing – bioinformation about ourselves, and the need for disclosure practices to respond appropriately.

Co-sponsored by the Future Law Project at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, the Center for Governance and Markets, and the Center for Bioethics & Health Law