What do we owe our future children? How do advances in biomedical science bear on these obligations? How do capitalist incentives distort their execution? Advances in biotechnologies for human enhancement and designer babies appear to offer us new hope to control the fragility of human living. Some philosophers have argued that we have a moral imperative to use them, especially to eliminate disabilities.
Elyse Purcell offers an opposing view, one guided by existential insights and Marxist reflections. Engineering Perfection: Solidarity, Disability, and Well-being explores the effect global capitalism may have on the selection of traits for our future children and how the commercialization of these technologies may lead to the elimination of bodily diversity. Although philosophers have addressed the possible widening between the haves and have-nots, this book considers the role oppression and exploitation may play in enhancing bodies for profit. As a challenge to the global economy of debility, Purcell proposes the Solidarity view, which embraces human vulnerability and embodied difference. By reflecting on facets of the human condition, the Solidarity view challenges us to reject our conception of the good life as human perfection, and instead reconceive of the good as one's self-realization through the interdependent mutual recognition and co-belonging with others.
Show moreWhat do we owe our future children? How do advances in biomedical science bear on these obligations? How do capitalist incentives distort their execution? Advances in biotechnologies for human enhancement and designer babies appear to offer us new hope to control the fragility of human living. Some philosophers have argued that we have a moral imperative to use them, especially to eliminate disabilities.
Elyse Purcell offers an opposing view, one guided by existential insights and Marxist reflections. Engineering Perfection: Solidarity, Disability, and Well-being explores the effect global capitalism may have on the selection of traits for our future children and how the commercialization of these technologies may lead to the elimination of bodily diversity. Although philosophers have addressed the possible widening between the haves and have-nots, this book considers the role oppression and exploitation may play in enhancing bodies for profit. As a challenge to the global economy of debility, Purcell proposes the Solidarity view, which embraces human vulnerability and embodied difference. By reflecting on facets of the human condition, the Solidarity view challenges us to reject our conception of the good life as human perfection, and instead reconceive of the good as one's self-realization through the interdependent mutual recognition and co-belonging with others.
Show moreAcknowledgments
Introduction: Genetic Technologies and My Existential Journey
Chapter 1: Solidarity and the Five Faces of Vulnerability
Chapter 2: Facing Aging and Illness: Oppression and the Exploitable Body
Chapter 3: Facing Death: Invulnerability and the “Cure”
Chapter 4: Facing Misfortune: Perfection, Designer Babies, and Imaginary Appetites
Chapter 5: Facing Suffering: Capitalism, QALY, and Well-being
Bibliography
Elyse Purcell is assistant professor of philosophy at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.
Advances in medical technologies appear to offer new opportunities
for improving the human condition—especially for future
generations. Purcell explains how the notion that such technologies
are tools that can protect humans from vulnerability is not only
mistaken but also harmful. Framing her discussion within the
context of her experience with fertility treatments and the process
of adoption, Purcell provides an insightful critique of the
commercialized and economic distortions affecting notions of the
quality of life and what people owe one another and their
children…. Purcell’s style is clear and engaging, and her argument
is not only cogent and persuasive but also an important call for
reflection as current scientific developments threaten to outpace
the human capacity for moral understanding. Highly recommended.
Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students,
faculty, and professionals.
*Choice Reviews*
In her monograph, Engineering Perfection, Elyse Purcell weaves
compelling stories that center 'imperfection' with cogent
philosophical insights drawing on feminist disability studies and
standpoint epistemology. Purcell roots her analysis in a solidarity
view that reimagines Iris Marion Young’s five faces of oppression
as faces of vulnerability. Engineering Perfection showcases an
important critique of transhumanism and its late capitalist
ideology of genetic enhancement.
*Mechthild Nagel, SUNY Cortland*
A lucid and enlightening exploration of the value of our
inescapable vulnerabilities, of the ways in which social-economic
processes push us toward the pathological perfectionism of genetic
engineering, and of how a saner society can be created through
social solidarity by means of respect for bodily difference,
relational authenticity, empowered self-direction, and mutual
recognition. A must-read!
*Michael K. Green, SUNY-Oneonta*
Elyse Purcell’s Engineering Perfection is a fearless, clear, and
exemplary work of moral philosophy. Drawing on what Purcell calls
'the Solidarity view,' the book effortlessly weaves personal
narrative and reflection on the experiences of infertility,
adoption, and disability with a careful consideration of the
literature covering genetic technology, disability studies,
Marxism, ethics, and virtue theory. The book is a careful
explication of life’s vulnerabilities—illness, aging, death,
misfortune, and suffering—and the way capitalism exploits those
vulnerabilities. Hopefully, Purcell suggests that a model for
social transformation will depend on the virtues of respect for
bodily diversity, relational authenticity, empowered
self-direction, and mutual recognition. This important and
expansive book will be of benefit to teachers and students across
many disciplines and to the general reader who desires to work
toward the well-being of all in society."
*Andrew Fitz-Gibbon, SUNY Cortland*
Elyse Purcell’s Engineering Perfection takes readers on a riveting
journey that explores the promise and perils of biotechnology
applications. While genetic engineering tools do many things,
recent innovations brought designer babies from thought-experiment
to reality. This book is a must-read for those grappling with how
best to apply these technologies to future generations—our
children.
*Samantha Noll, Washington State University*
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