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65 S. Cal. L. Rev. 255 (1991-1992)
Vital Essences and Human Wholeness: The Social Readings of Biological Information

handle is hein.journals/scal65 and id is 273 raw text is: ARTICLE VITAL ESSENCES AND HUMAN WHOLENESS: THE SOCIAL READINGS OF BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION DANIEL J. KEVLES* I. INTRODUCTION Singly and collectively, patenting life, the human genome project, diagnostic technologies, and biochemical indicators of behavior call to mind several overarching themes: the reduction of vital processes to physics and chemistry, the objectification of organisms as physical and chemical entities, and the corresponding exposure of living systems to medical manipulation or utilitarian engineering. These themes are by no means new in the annals of modem science. They may be recognized as implicit in certain landmark achievements in biology since the nineteenth century, including demonstrations of the purely chemical composition of bodily substances, biochemical illuminations of physiological and meta- bolic processes, and discoveries of the predictable responses of organisms to physical and chemical stimuli. They may also be seen in efforts to forge human control over nature-in the drive to exploit animate as well as inanimate nature, the determination to establish scientific medicine, and ambitions to remake human society by manipulating its heredity.' Physicochemical reductionism has long been a powerful theme in studies of heredity. Gregor Mendel, originally a student of physics and chemistry, insinuated a kind of atomism into the field with his theory * California Institute of Technology. 1. For a general introduction to the reductionist and engineering drive, see PHILIP J. PAULY, CONTROLLING LIFE: JACQUES LOEB & THE ENGINEERING IDEAL IN BIOLOGY (1987).

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