Life as surplus : biotechnology and capitalism in the neoliberal era

230 Pages·2008·7.661 MB·English

by  Melinda Cooper

Life as Surplus
Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era
MELINDA COOPER
A McLELLAN BOOK
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS □ Seattle and London
This book is published with the assistance of a grant from the McLellan Endowed Series Fund,
established through the generosity of Martha McCleary McLellan and Mary McLellan Williams.
© 2008 by the University of Washington Press
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Veronica Seyd
13 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
University of Washington Press
PO Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145
www.washington.edu/uwpress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cooper, Melinda.
Life as surplus : biotechnology and capitalism in the neoliberal era / Melinda Cooper,
p. ; cm. — (In vivo)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-295-98791-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Biotechnology—Political aspects—United States. 2. Life sciences—Political
aspects—United States. 3. Capitalism—Health aspects—United States. I. Title.
II. Series: In Vivo (Seattle, Wash.)
[dnlm: 1. Biological Sciences. 2. Capitalism. 3. Politics, qh 705 c777 2007]
tp248.2.c674 2007 303.48'3— dc22 2007038562
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and 90 percent recycled from at least
50 percent post-consumer waste. It meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.Z
For Lucette,
Bob
and Melissa

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 Life Beyond the Limits
Inventing the Bioeconomy 15
2 On Pharmaceutical Empire
AIDS, Security, and Exorcism 51
3 Preempting Emergence
The Biological Turn in the War on Terror 74
Intermezzo 101
4 Contortions
Tissue Engineering and the Topological Body 103
5 Labors of Regeneration
Stem Cells and the Embryoid Bodies of Capital 129
6 The Unborn Born Again
Neo-Imperialism, the Evangelical Right, and the Culture of Life 152
Epilogue 175
Notes 177
References 195
Index 212

Acknowledgments
Many people collaborated, willingly or not, in the coming to life
of this book. Lucette has seen it through from its first inchoate stages
to the final touches at Twigg's café in San Diego. This book owes so much to
her and to her unique, adorable presence.
I would like to thank Françoise Duroux, for being such a generous, provoca­
tive doctoral supervisor; Brian Salter, for being a mover and shaker and for
providing me with such an enabling environment at the University of East
Anglia; Brian Massumi, for being so inspiring; Mick Dillon, Elspeth Probyn,
Rosi Braidotti, and Joseph Dumit, for their professional and intellectual gen­
erosity; Kaushik Sunder Raj an, for being inimitable. I especially want to thank
the friends who made Sydney such an intellectually exciting place to be—Anna
Munster, Brett Neilson, Michael Goddard, and Jeremy Walker. I owe more than
I can say to Catherine Waldby, friend and collaborator, who made this book
and so much more possible. A thank you to Peter, for sporadic friendship and
girl talk. And to Ingrid Renard, for being special.
I don't know how to thank Melissa for being so lovely and disarming, from
Marrickville to Cairo.
I would like to thank my mother, Marina, and my sisters Wendy and Katina
for their love and support; and my father, Bob Cooper, who died too soon, for
being so sweet, encouraging, and politically inspiring.
Finally, I would like to thank the reviewers of the manuscript, Kaushik Sun­
der Raj an and Catherine Waldby (again). In the postmanuscript haze their inci­
sive comments helped me see the light again, resulting, I feel, in a much clearer
final draft.
This book was commissioned by Phillip Thurtle and Rob Mitchell, editors of
the In Vivo series, and I am deeply grateful to them for being so encouraging.
It has been a pleasure to work with Jacquie Ettinger, editor at the University
of Washington Press. All of these people helped to make the daunting book-
writing process not so bad at all.

LIFE AS SURPLUS