Reflections on the Tarrytown Meeting Day One
Hope: For "limits." (Francine); boundaries between e.g., transgender interventions (good) and transhumanism (bad); (Yali); for drawing lines; for a "reining in of the technology." What Concerns Motivate that Hope? Greed & Markets. One most often-articulated concern was about greed and desire—often expressed as a concern about markets dominating our lives. The concern was that there is no sphere of our lives free from market influences.
Coercion & Exploitation. More specifically, there was the concern that the "reprogenetic" market exploits women; concern about exploitation/soft coercion of women; several suggestions of false consciousness (you say you're choosing it, but you aren't really). Carmel & Dorothy: "We thought IVF would expand women's choices, but it [constrained them]."
Technology. Bruce/Jonathan/Dorothy: "Power/technology uses us." Technology is not morally neutral. We need to shape it (if we are to save the planet).
Issues re who "we" are
"Solutions" Wider awareness of the questions (Debra Greenfield) Balance. As Jonathan Kahn said, we aren't getting rid of markets or science. Assuming that's right, we need to achieve balance between markets and civil society; there could be a university-civil society relations like university-industrial complex (Kahn and Jasanoff) Regulation. This is where liberals end up—perhaps not the sorts of "limits" or "boundaries" that some of us wish were possible. Final observation: Concern about genocentrism/geneticization & desire to see the big picture, so attend to context. Actually one small bit of good news: the science is heading us away from a focus on genes! (It would be worse than ironic if we let the old gene-focused scientific conversation direct our policy conversation.) |