Nobody's Child, Everybody's Children:

Biopolitics For A Human Future

What many have dubbed the “biotech century” is now well underway, and with it the anticipated acceleration of scientific, business, and political developments related to human reproductive and genetic technologies. Closely related but less appreciated is the emergence of what can be termed biopolitics—a new form of political engagement with the social meanings and consequences of these powerful technologies.

This new biopolitics is a broader phenomenon than bioethics, which has been conducted largely as an expert academic and media discourse. It does not map cleanly on the conventional left-to-right political spectrum, although debates about some biopolitical issues have been dominated by the moral status of embryos, and thus have pit religious conservatives against pro-choice liberals and progressives.

Biopolitics increasingly involves organizations and individuals concerned that unless we mobilize our moral intelligence and political will, new genetic and reproductive technologies will conform to existing social divides and to the inadequacies of our democracies, and exacerbate both. From this perspective, there are many beneficial applications of assisted reproduction and biomedical research, but there are also many uncritical biotechnology enthusiasts and problematic prospects that need to be confronted. The importance of effective public oversight of reproductive and genetic technologies is recognized, as is the urgent need for clear lines, where they are necessary, between acceptable and unacceptable applications of these powerful tools.

The civil society voices entering the biopolitical arena include those associated with reproductive rights and women’s health, environmentalism, indigenous rights and racial justice, disability rights, and gay and lesbian rights. My own organization, a US-based nonprofit public affairs organization, works closely with many of these new players. One of the challenges we have encountered is the differing emphases among (and sometimes within) these actors in three areas: 1) balancing personal liberty and individual autonomy with social justice and the common good, 2) determining the kind and amount of enthusiasm or caution appropriate to various reproductive and genetic technologies, and 3) deciding whether regulation in these areas is best centered in government or market mechanisms.

This presentation will make the case that we urgently need a new biopolitics and that we are in fact witnessing its tentative emergence. It will include both political interpretation and discussion of some “stories from the field.”