The past and future of "sex genes".

Much later than the discovery of "sex chromosomes" and of "sex hormones", genetics started delivering detailed explanations of sex-determining developmental pathways. Despite increasing knowledge of biological processes, concepts and theories about sex development are never based on facts alone. There are inevitable entanglements of biological description and changing cultural assumptions and they play a key role in how sex genes are framed and interpreted in biological research. In this review article we first focus on the early 20th century biology that worked in a hormone-based paradigm. Genetic explanations emerged later, first on the basis of sex chromosomes; starting in the 1980s, on the basis of genes. We highlight orthodox views of female development, which saw the default pathway of human sex development. We will show how recent findings in biology challenge it. The article discusses the interactions of causal claims in science with cultural assumption about gender and outlines three influential strands of critical feminist philosophy of science: the critique of genetic determinism and genetic essentialism, of dualist assumptions, and of an androcentric bias in the conception of research strategies. In the final section we suggest key agenda points of future genetic research on sex determination.

[ADHS - Disorder concepts and the beginnings of pharmacotherapy in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic]. / ADHS ­ Störungskonzepte und Anfänge der Pharmakotherapie in Bundesrepublik und DDR.

ADHS - Disorder concepts and the beginnings of pharmacotherapy in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic Abstract. After sporadic references before 1900, the concept of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder became established in the 20th century. The hyperactive and inattentive child then became the focus of neuropediatrics in the wake of the encephalitis lethargica epidemic by clinical presentations of postencephalitic residual conditions. From these patients, physicians distilled a subgroup with an blank neurological history but impressive clinical symptoms. Child psychiatry, which emerged in the middle of the last century, studied these minimally brain-damaged patients, searching for both causes and therapies. The disorder concepts of Reinhart Lempp and Gerhard Göllnitz are significant contributions from the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR, respectively, which provide revealing insights into the establishment of pharmacotherapy with stimulants in the 1970s.

Bioethics and the argumentative legacy of atrocities in medical history: Reflections on a complex relationship.

Slippery slope-, taboo-breaking- or Nazi-analogy-arguments are common, but not uncontroversial examples of the complex relationship between bioethics and the various ways of using historical arguments in these debates. In our analysis we examine first the relationship between bioethics and medical history both as separate disciplines and as argumentative practices. Secondly, we then analyse six common types of historical arguments in bioethics (slippery slope-, analogy-, continuity-, knockout/taboo-, ethical progress- and accomplice-arguments), some as arguments within the academic debate of bioethics, others as arguments within political and public debates over bioethical issues. We conclude by suggesting to bioethicists to better understand historical arguments as socially and culturally embedded practices of critical reflection of power, medical and government paternalism and possible future scenarios. More interdisciplinarity between ethicists and medical historians is needed to appropriately rationalize and understand the different legacies.

[Hexa-sabbath. Foreign matter and vital substances, experts and the critical consumer in the FRG during the 1950s and 1960s]. / Hexa-Sabbat. Fremdstoffe und Vitalstoffe, Experten und der kritische Verbraucher in der BRD der 1950er und 1960er Jahre.

In the late Fifties and early Sixties the regulation of food additives represented a remarkable turning point in German consumer politics, establishing a debate about decision making and policy advice, altering the discourse of purity and contamination, and inaugurating a new political actor, the organized critical consumer. The amendment of the Food Law in December 1958 functioned as a negotiation process between representatives of science, industry and the state, which was institutionalized in the Senate Commissions of the German Research Foundation. While these Commissions for preservatives, foreign matter and colorants worked behind closed doors, a public discourse about the "toxic condition" of modern life and the negative role of the pharmaceutical and chemical industry gained strength. The debate about the admission of hexamethylenetetramine (hexa) took part at a crucial moment. Hexa was used as a preservative in the fish industry. But its anti microbial effectiveness was caused by the decomposition of hexa to formaldehyde. Despite the commission's verdict against hexa, the lobbying activities of the industry granted it a reprieve. In the media, the case of hexa was seen as a touchstone for the capacity of negotiated decision making and the ability of rational scientists to resist the demands of industry. Finally, in 1963 it was the new political actor of the organized critical consumer, heir and successor to the housewife federations as well as to "purists" advocating life reform, who, supported by the media, enforced the prohibition of hexa as a preservative.