Biopolitics and Utopia: An Interdisciplinary Reader

211 Pages·2015·1.9 MB·English

by  Patricia Stapleton, Andrew Byers (eds.)

Biopolitics and Utopia
Palgrave Series in Bioethics and Public Policy

Biotechnology continues to impact populations in myriad ways— influencing
contemporary issues in food supply, genetic therapy, health care, biosecurity,
terrorism, criminal justice, food supply, and environmental engineering, among
many other aspects of daily life. The Palgrave Series in Bioethics and Public
Policy seeks to promote interdisciplinary research that analyzes and assesses
the social, environmental, and moral ramifications of where this technology is
taking us. With a wide range of topics within bioethics open to the series, this
series provides a home for cutting-edge research that bridges the divide between
the natural and social sciences. This series will also attract a dynamic and
varied assortment of scholars to provide comprehensive evaluations of where
biotechnology is taking our society—and most importantly, if these directions
are being forged appropriately and ethically.
Series editor: Sheldon Krimsky
Sheldon Krimsky is the Lenore Stern Professor of Humanities and Social
Sciences and adjunct professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at
Tufts University, USA. Professor Krimsky is the author, coauthor, and editor
of 14 books including Genetic Justice: DNA Databanks, Criminal Investigations,
and Civil Liberties, awarded a gold medal by the Independent Publishers in 2011.
Professor Krimsky served on the National Institutes of Health’s Recombinant
DNA Advisory Committee and was a consultant to the Presidential Commission
for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral
Research and to the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Recently,
he served as associate editor, for Bioethics, 2014, a reference volume for the
field.
Regulating Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis in the United States:
The Limits of Unlimited Selection (2015)
By Michele Bayefsky and Bruce Jennings
Biopolitics and Utopia: An Interdisciplinary Reader (2015)
Edited by Patricia Stapleton and Andrew Byers
Biopolitics and Utopia
An Interdisciplinary Reader
Edited by
Patricia Stapleton and Andrew Byers
BIOPOLITICS AND UTOPIA
Copyright © Patricia Stapleton and Andrew Byers, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-51474-5
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-70318-0 ISBN 978-1-137-51475-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-51475-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Biopolitics and utopia : an interdisciplinary reader / edited by Patricia
Stapleton and Andrew Byers.
pages cm.—(Palgrave series in bioethics and public policy)
Summary: “Biopolitics and Utopia explores the intersection of
biopolitics and utopian thought. As an interdisciplinary work, it addresses
many salient biopolitical issues (state and medical i nterventions in
the body, fears over scientific progress, resistance to state biopower,
and ethical concerns), while also engaging in the utopian drive behind
biopolitical efforts. The book is structured into four main sections:
Actions, Speculations, Reactions, and Reflections. The chapters in Actions
examine the practices of direct, medical intervention to ‘normalize’
citizens’ bodies. The next section, Speculations, approaches the
intersection of utopia and biopolitics through a literary lens, reviewing
science fiction texts as expressions of cultural and social fears about
scientific progress. Reactions outlines potential acts of resistance in the
face of biopower. Finally, Reflections offers a more philosophical essay,
which engages the reader in the potential for creating an ethics for
scientific standards”—Provided by publisher.
Summary: “This reader offers a fascinating exploration of the
intersection of biopolitics and utopia by employing a range of
theoretical approaches. Each essay provides a unique application of the
two concepts to topics spanning the social sciences and humanities”—
P rovided by publisher.
1. Biopolitics. 2. Utopias. 3. Biotechnology—Moral and ethical
aspects. I. Stapleton, Patricia. II. Byers, Andrew.
JA80.B548 2015
321(cid:25).07—dc23 2014048055
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: June 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Permissions viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Andrew Byers and Patricia Stapleton
Part I Actions
1 American Bodies in a Time of War: The Militarized Body
as a Utopian Space and Biopolitical Project for the State 13
Andrew Byers
2 “Abnormals” or “Exceptions”: The Use of Technologies for
Intersex People and People with Disabilities 41
Arpita Das
3 The Inauspicious Regulatory Beginnings of Preimplantation
Genetic Diagnosis 63
Patricia Stapleton
Part II Speculations
4 Utopian Visions of “Making People”: Science Fiction and
Debates on Cloning, Ectogenesis, Genetic Engineering,
and Genetic Discrimination 89
Evie Kendal
5 Decolonizing the Future: Biopolitics, Ethics, and
Foresight through the Lens of Science Fiction 119
Selena Middleton
vi (cid:77) Contents
Part III Reactions
6 “All Day, All Week, Occupy Wall Street!”: Space,
Biopower, and Resistance 141
Elena L. Cohen
7 Eating for the Future: Veganism and the Challenge of
In Vitro Meat 167
Rasmus R. Simonsen
Part IV Reflections
8 Utopia and Biopolitics: The Need for an Ethics in Biotechnology 193
Cameron Barrows
List of Contributors 203
Index 207
Figures and Tables
Figures
6.1 Notice of temporary access change 145
6.2 Zuccotti Park 147
6.3 Homeland security intelligence document 148
7.1 “Disembodied Cuisine”—growing the steaks 173
7.2 “Disembodied Cuisine” 174
7.3 “Disembodied Cuisine” 174
7.4 “Disembodied Cuisine”—dinner 175
7.5 “Victimless Leather” 175
Tables
1.1 Overall draft and rejection statistics, by twentieth-century war 28
3.1 ART fertility clinic success rates reports for
2010, 2011, and 2012 66
Permissions
All images in chapter 7 “Eating for the Future: Veganism and the Challenge
of In Vitro Meat” by Rasmus Simonsen, are courtesy of the Tissue Culture
and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr). Hosted at SymbioticA, School
of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. The
image credits are as under:
Title: ‘Tissue Engineered Steak No.1’ 2000 study for “Disembodied
Cuisine”
Artists: The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr)
Medium: Pre-natal sheep skeletal muscle and degradable PGA polymer
scaffold.
Date: 2000–01
Photography: Ionat Zurr
Explanatory information:
Part of Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr Research Fellowship in the Tissue
Engineering and Organ Fabrication, MGH, Harvard Medical School.
Title: ‘Tissue Engineered Steak No.1’ 2000 study for “Disembodied
Cuisine”
Artists: The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr)
Medium: Pre-natal sheep skeletal muscle and degradable PGA polymer
scaffold, a micro gravity bioreactor.
Photography: Ionat Zurr
Date: 2000–01
Part of Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr Research Fellowship in the Tissue
Engineering and Organ Fabrication, MGH, Harvard Medical School.
Title: Disembodied Cuisine Installation Nantes France 2003
Artists: The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat
Zurr)
Date: 2003
Photography: Axel Heise
Acknowledgments
Andrew Byers: An excerpt of this chapter was presented at the 38th
annual conference of the Society for Utopian Studies in Charleston,
South Carolina, in November 2013. The author would like to thank the
organizers and attendees of the conference as well as the following schol-
ars who have kindly provided guidance and feedback on this project:
Elizabeth Schreiber-Byers, Patricia Stapleton, Claire Curtis, Thomas
Cassidy, Peter Stillman, Francesco Crocco, and Kenneth Roemer. Any
mistakes in this chapter remain the sole responsibility of the author.
Questions and comments are welcome; readers are invited to contact
the author at [email protected].
Elena Cohen: The author would like to thank Rosalind Petchesky,
Christina Quintana, Patricia Stapleton, and Andrew Byers for their
guidance and feedback on this project. Any mistakes in this chapter
remain the sole responsibility of the author. Questions and comments
are welcome; readers are invited to contact the author at ecohen1@grad-
center.cuny.edu.
Evie Kendal: The author would like to acknowledge Catherine Mills,
Andrew Milner, Olivia Khoo, and Ryan Tonkens for their valuable
advice and input.
Patricia Stapleton: An excerpt of this chapter was presented at the 38th
annual conference of the Society for Utopian Studies in Charleston,
South Carolina, in November 2013. The author would like to thank
the organizers and attendees of the conference, as well as the following
people who have kindly provided guidance and feedback on this proj-
ect: Andrew Byers, Claire Curtis, Kate Broad, Carrie Hintz, and Adam
Luskin. Any mistakes in this chapter remain the sole responsibility of
the author. Questions and comments are welcome; readers are invited to
contact the author at [email protected].