Science, Seeds, and Cyborgs Biotechnology and the Appropriation of Life

by Bowring, Finn

• ISBN13: 9781859846872
• ISBN10: 1859846874
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-17
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

Drawing on an impressive wealth of evidence, Science, Seeds and Cyborgs challenges the legitimacy of genetic engineering. This prescient book highlights countless scientific flaws in many of the recent developments in agriculture, medicine, and new reproductive technologies, and shows that the degree of uncertainty involved in genetic manipulation is far greater than is generally assumed.Science, Seeds and Cyborgs then explores the social and ethical implications of genetic engineering. Bowring argues that the current cultural obsession with the idea of cyborgs encapsulates society's biotech vision and ultimately the victory of a technocratic consciousness. We are entering a mechanical civilization in which feelings of sympathy and affection, moral ambiguities, cosmic doubts and inexpressible convictions are nothing but obstacles to the rapid circulation of data and the harmonious reproduction of technological systems. If this cybernetic vision succeeds, biotechnology achieves its final triumph: the abolition of subjectivity and the adaptation of humans to an inhuman world.

Author Biography

Finn Bowring is a lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
The Revolution in Molecular Biology	9	(32)
Agricultural Biotechnology and Ecological Risk	41	(26)
The Life Science Industry	67	(20)
Manufacturing Scarcity	87	(30)
Animal Biotechnology and Ethics	117	(28)
Health and Disease: The Limitations of Genetic Determinism	145	(26)
From Pharmacogenetics to Gene Therapy	171	(18)
The Road to Human Cloning	189	(18)
Genetic Discrimination: Information and Power	207	(20)
Making Babies: The Appropriation of Life	227	(32)
The Cyborg Solution	259	(19)
Notes	278	(52)
Index	330