The export of pituitary glands from communist Bulgaria in the 1970s and 1980s

What is it about?

The article focuses on the export of cadaveric pituitary glands from communist Bulgaria in the 1980s, used for the production of human growth hormone. The case is explored in the broader context of transnational networks for the supply of pituitaries. Special attention is paid to the changes resulting from the turn to the production of recombinant growth hormone in the mid-1980s, which put an end to the international ‘market’ of pituitary glands. In the last sections, different perspectives are explored to make sense of the case under scrutiny: those of bioethics and biolaw, on the one hand, and of bioeconomy in a globalising world, on the other.

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Why is it important?

Assuming that the Iron Curtain was in many respects permeable, the study contributes to the understanding of what specifically used to ‘flow’ through it and in which direction. Taken beyond the specific details, the case exhibits a moral dilemma: the clash between the advancement of medical research and therapy, on the one hand, and the entrepreneurial approach to the human body, on the other.