Bioethics and the Posthumanities
Danielle Sands
Abstract
Within the last decade, research in the biological sciences has unquestionably revolutionised our understanding of life processes, biological entities, and the boundaries of the organic and inorganic world. Gene-editing technologies, particularly CRISPR, have accelerated the speed of gene editing whilst also dramatically reducing the cost. Frequently cited as “the most important innovation in the synthetic biology space in nearly 30 years," (Basulto, 2015) its range of potential applications is apparently near-endless. Notably, proponents of gene-sequence editing have foregrounded its potentially transformative uses in agriculture, fuel-production, computing and medicine (The Royal Society, 2018). In academic political and social studies, advanced technologies like CRISPR and other biotechnologies have generally occupied a rather peripheral location. There have however, in recent years, been several contributions that engage critically with the ways that advanced and cutting-edge techno-sciences interact with humanity, society and our ontological and normative preoccupations.1 Whilst it is still commonplace for technology and science to be treated as exogeneous and discreet from the political world, many scholars advance the thesis that to live in modernity is to have an “inescapably technological existence”(McCarthy, 2017).