356 RüdigerKunow
ParablesofthePossible:ContoursofanEnhancedLife
Enhancement has become a key word for a variety of new body
projects made possible by genomics and the biotech industry. Broadly
speaking, the term refers to "a process of change that improves
something or increases its value" ("Enhancement" n. pag.); in the
context that concerns us here, it has become a signal term, describing
processes,manyofthem technologicallyinduced,thatgo"beyondwhat
is necessary to sustain health or repair the body" (Hogle 696) and
increase the performance and the social viability of the body.^51
Enhancement thus takes us to a value theory of life, and especially
humanlife.^52
Meanwhile, it is important to note that even though not all forms of
enhancement are technology-based—even such a venerable maxim as
"an apple a day keeps the doctor away" can be read as enhancement
strategy—the term now circulates in the public culture of the United
States in a way that suggests that biotechnology is the high road to a
healthier and thus better self. Enhancement is widely seen as marking a
quantum leap in the engineering of human life made possible by the
breathtaking advances in genomics and molecular biology.
Enhancement thus understood is no longer a matter merely of cosmetic
surgery or prosthetics but includes procedures such as gene therapy,
stemcellgrafts,pharmacogenomics,tonameonlyafew.Onthecultural
pragmaticsofnewenhancementssubstances,MichaelSandelhasthisto
say:
Unlike the drugs of the 1960s and 1970s, Ritalin... (and other
stimulants) are not for checking out but for buckling down, not for
beholding the world and taking it in but for molding the world and(^51) For such an argument which takes the Marxian concept of a labor theory of
valuetothebiologicalsectorcf.Morini,Crista,andAndreaFumagelli."LifePut
to Work: Towards a Life Theory of Value."Ephemera10.3/4 (2010): 234-52.
Print.
(^52) ItmightbetemptingtoapplytheBaudrillardianconceptof"symboliccapital"
to these processes but the concept has, since its introduction in the 1980s,
becomesooverusedthatitwouldrequireamorecomplicatedargumentthancan
beperformedheretosituateitintheenhancementdiscussion.