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This article compares and explores forms of ‘public’ participation in the development of bioethical governance of human embryonic stem cell research (hESR) in four Asian societies, and in doing so it contributes to the wider discussions on expertise and public inclusion. The article aims to add nuance to the concept of ‘public consultation’ by focusing on the contested meanings and relationships through which public roles and public debates are defined. The analysis seeks to go beyond a straightforward comparison by interpreting public discussions of hESR as being influenced by both local conditions and interconnected global science institutions. An adequate understanding of the public participation in debates on science requires the analysis of (a) particular reasons for scientific issues to require public discussion; (b) pressures of transnational forces; (c) variability of publics relevant to bioethical regulation; and, (d) the effects of institutionalization of bioethics. This study uses data from fieldwork conducted between 2006 and 2010 in four Asian countries. Most of the interviews were conducted in the local languages and concerned various kinds of public participation in bioethics activities, as well as the views of stem cell scientists on the need to involve the public in discussions on the acceptability of their research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given the changes of the modern family, this study seeks to compare the ways in which television dramas of four East Asian societies, namely Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan, represent the family and family relationships. By analysing their similarities and differences, the study attempts to explore changes of family in these supposedly Confucian East Asian societies. Three analytic categories were proposed: the structure and form of the family as represented in dramas; family relationships; individuality and the family. The study found that the historical trajectories of East Asian countries are articulated in the different familial representations across the television dramas of the countries in the region surveyed. The common assumption that all East Asian countries have the same model of the Confucian family therefore needs to be re-examined along the more specific national conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]