Forthcoming genetic technologies will allow people to design their children. Although these tools are unlikely to produce a society of castes like the Alphas and Epsilons in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, they may already be changing our understanding of what it means to be human.
References
1.
DusterTroy. Backdoor to Eugenics.New York, NY: Routledge, 1990. Explains how genetic technologies can lead to a reinstatement of genetic explanations for social problems.
2.
EvansJohn H.Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate.Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Shows how our public debates on genetic (and other) issues have become less substantive over time.
3.
HuxleyAldous. Brave New World. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1998 [1932]. A dystopian novel about a highly controlled society. Written in reaction to the eugenic ideas circulating at the time.
4.
KayeHoward. The Social Meaning of Modern Biology: From Social Darwinism to Sociobiology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997 [1986]. Kaye claims that modern biology is promoting a particular view of the human behind a patina of scientific “facts.”.
5.
KayeHoward. “Anxiety and Genetic Manipulation: A Sociological View.”Perspectives in Biology and Medicine41(4) (1998): 483–90. Kaye applies his argument that modern biology is promoting a particular view of the human to the current debate over cloning and other recent technologies.
6.
NelkinDorothySusan LindeeM.. The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon.New York: W.H. Freeman Co., 1995. A study of popular conceptions of “the gene” and “genetic effects.”.
7.
RothmanBarbara Katz. Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations.New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1998. Discusses the view of the human promoted by genetic science and defends a more social definition of humanity.
