CorporealSemiotics:TheBodyoftheText/theTextoftheBody 359
Right now, the jury is still out on the question whether or not
genomics offers viable tools to avoid or mitigate the physiological
changesthatconstituteanimportantpartoftheexperiencecalled"age."
What is already clear, however, is that systematic genetic interventions
into the aging process—should they become possible at some later
date—will not add something fundamentally new to the current cultural
script of "good aging" which, simply put, seeks to promote an aging
experience that is free of the bodily signs of aging or old age. In other
words,"[t]hosewhoretaintheirfitnessandactiveengagementinlifeare
praised, whereas those who lose their vitality or disengage from society
are marginalized, pitied and ridiculed" (Hodgetts et al. 419). So, if
somebody is old and frail, they have got nobody to blame but
themselves; why did you not take an anti-aging medication or go to the
geneticbodyshop?
Needless to say, the ethical issues involved here are highly complex
anddifficulttoadjudicate.Whatsomehailas"procreativebeneficience"
(Savulescu413)isbyotherscondemnedas"playingGod"or"tampering
withnature"(Darnovski147).Whileitmayberelativelyuncontroversial
to eliminate or (in the fashionable gene-text analogy) to "edit out" by
genetic intervention some molecular features that in all likelihood will
make life hard for the children to be born, the prospect of "editing out"
in the process all the less-than-perfect human beings is deeply
disturbing. This is written from the subject position of someone whose
genetic defects are as yet unknown to him; from the perspective of a
disabledperson,JamesC.Wilson,hasthistosay:
It would be absurd for those of us in the disability community to argue
against genetic research or medical technology. Indeed, many people
who have experienced disability are alive today because of medical
technology (myself included) and are understandably grateful for any
research that promises to improve the lives of the disabled. My concern
isthatgenomics,asthefieldiscurrentlyconstitutedandpresentedtothe
public, reinforces the social stigma attached to disability. Indeed, as we
have seen, the genetic model of disability as defective or corrupted text
reducespeopletothelevelofspellingmistakes,typographicalerrorsthat
needtobeeliminatedbygeneticeditors.(31)