the Bio-Sciences and Their Technologies e.V.
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| BioSkop – Forum Observing
the Bio-Sciences and Their Technologies e.V. |
Bio-sciences and their technologies are not only a means for observing nature but also a tool for harnessing it. In the scientific perspective, the totality of living beings is perceived as one tremendously large piece of raw material, which may be arbitrarily cut into pieces and fashioned efficiently.
The visions of the bio-sciences are: prolonging life through the recycling of organs, tissue and embryos; producing »healthier« children through the use of prenatal controlling procedures or by growing them directly from petri dishes; producing more »useful« animals, plants, bacteria by genetic engineering; guaranteeing »survival« through remedies, which are taken from genetically modified living beings.
Farmers, and especially those with smallholdings in continents of the southern hemisphere, do not profit from scientific possibilities and developments. Multinational corporations, which deal with seeds and pharmaceuticals capitalise on the experiences gained by farmers through their cultivation of plants and animals. In industrial states, numerous patent offices exploit plants as a »gene resource.«
New markets are opened up. Nothing exists beyond production and feasibility. The bio-sciences market is shaped by the procedures and genes which may be patented, by the parts of the body which may be transplanted, by the ever present influence of supply and demand, and by the desire to refashion our bodies into a more »perfect« idealized form. The living itself becomes a raw material to be used in the creation of new commodities. Thus accumulated lifetime, accompanied by an increasing »quality« of life, goes hand in hand with the production of commodities. What is ignored however is that each life is perishable and fleeting. Technology and sciences are led by the fundamental philosophy that man-made products are superior to nature.
»Life-Sciences« of modernity – biology cooperating with medicine – have created »life« as a new standard format and value. Its original meaning has been lost and a new term has been coined to which experts refer. In doing so they attempt to attain the right to make use of human bodies (Leib), of »populations« as constructed entities, and of the »generic body« of the human race all over the world, in order to shape it. It seems that the visions geneticists depicted in the 19th century will eventually come true. The motto of genome scientists is, as stated by Daniel Cohen: »We will face eugenics, sure, but a specific kind of eugenics which is willing to preserve, not to eliminate; this eugenics will be humanitarian, not totalitarian.«
Drawbacks of this utopian draft of society can be clearly discerned in contemporary policies and politics concerning health care, social issues, and handicapped members of society. They are not based on mutual support but on avoiding, preventing »burden« thus excluding all those, who do not fit into utopian ideas of health and normality. Meanwhile the public and law-making process is even apt to guarantee murder, i.e. so-called euthanasia addressed to old, totally disabled, terminal ill and comatose patients.
»Bioethics«, a profession that has developed quite recently, provides supposedly adequate terms, institutional structures, laws, conventions, and committees. The bioethical discourse only reflects on »biology« and »life« and follows the demands of politicians, who seem to act in the name of the natural sciences and technology, of jurisdiction, philosophy, and religions. Only experts are entitled to talk, make plans and act with regard to issues that concern the general public. Even the intention of killing people is getting plausible and normal.
BioSkop is an association of individuals, who are engaged in journalism, initiatives, science, university, parishes, or in enforcing the rights of women and the handicapped. They are active throughout Germany, in the Netherlands, and other European countries and think and fight against the impacts of bio-sciences.
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In everyday life, the bio-sciences
have become »a
total social fact«, which »force
their truths on ethics, legal norms, politics, religions, and philosophers.«
(Michel Serres)
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