TheMaterialismofBiologicalEncounters 61
when the transcendental grounding of epidemics as caused by the god's
displeasure was no longer available. Here as in earlier times, the crisis
unleashedbyencountersofthebiologicalkindcametobereflectedina
surfeitofrumors,storiesandimages.
Thestoryofbiologicalencountersastoldsofarinculturalcritiqueis
grievously incomplete (Wald et al. 619), especially in view of
developments during the last decades in the field of medicine and
biotechnology. It has now become possible that the building blocks of
human biology, not organs or bacteria, but tissues, DNA sequences,
stemcells,cannowbecome"mobile,"dis-embeddedfromtheiroriginal
sites in an individual human body with its particular history and
positionality and from there passed on to other bodies, even multiple
other bodies in different socio-cultural contexts.^13 This dis-embedding
means that the bio-sciences in tandem with state of the art medical
technology are "conferring a new mobility on the elements of life,
enabling them to enter new circuits—organic, interpersonal,
geographical and financial" (N. Rose, "Politics of Life" 14-15) and in
thiswayopensupawholenewtheaterofbiologicalencounters.
"Financial"isakeyterminthiscontextbecausethewholesystemof
exchange, often "billed" as altruistic gesture, giving "the gift of life" to
another person, is in fact firmly entrenched in the circuits of neoliberal
capitalism (Kunow, "Wertkörper"). This is no mere speculation, nor
malicious guesswork from a hostile ideological position. The technical
language used by professionals in this line of business makes this very
clear:"[b]odypartsareextractedlikeamineral,harvestedlikeacrop,or
minedlikearesource.Tissueisprocured—atermmorecommonlyused
for land, goods, and prostitutes" (Andrews and Nelkin qtd. in N. Rose,
Politics of Life39). Two additional points can be made here from the
perspectiveofculturalcritique:many,ifnotmost,oftheseencountersin
(^13) Not all encounters that are made possible in this way remain uncontroversial.
Afewyearsago,astorycreatedquiteastirwhichtoldthefateofa12-year-old
Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli troops. The boy's father then decided to
donate his son's organs to other, seriously ill children, and so they were passed
ontothechildrenofanIsraeliDruze,anIsraeliBedouinandanorthodoxJewish
family("PalestinianFamilyDonatesSon'sOrganstoIsraelis"n.pag.).