Experiencing the New Genetics

Over the past several decades there has been an explosion of interest in genetics and genetic inheritance within both the research community and the mass media. The science of genetics now forecasts great advances in alleviating disease and prolonging human life, placing the family and kin group under the spotlight.In Experiencing the New Genetics, Kaja Finkler argues that the often uncritical presentation of research on genetic inheritance as well as the attitudes of some in the biomedical establishment contribute to a ",genetic essentialism,", a new genetic determinism, and the medicalization of kinship in American society. She explores some of the social and cultural consequences of this phenomenon. Finkler discovers that the new genetics can turn a healthy person into a perpetual patient, complicate the redefinition of the family that has been occurring in American society for the past few decades, and lead to the abdication of responsibility for addressing the problem of unhealthy environmental conditions. Experiencing the New Genetics will assist scholars and general readers alike in making sense of this timely and multifaceted issue.

Auteur
Kaja Finkler is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Contenu

Preface

1. Introduction

PT. I. SETTING THE STAGE: KINSHIP AND GENETICS

2. The Role of Kinship in Human Life
3. Family and Kinship in American Society
4. Concepts of Heredity in Western Society

PT. II. SETTING OUT PEOPLE'S EXPERIENCE

5. People with a Genetic History I: Patients Without Symptoms
6. People with a Genetic History II: Recovered Patients
7. People Without a Medical History: Adoptees.

PT. III. IMPLICATIONS

8. The Ideology of Genetic Inheritance in Contemporary Life: The Medicalization of Kinship
9. A Multidimensional Critique of Genetic Determinism
10. Conclusion

Notes
References
Index
Acknowledgments