The Reproductive Bodies of Postgenomics

Abstract

In this Introduction, we present a collection of articles under the topic “the reproductive bodies of postgenomics.” Through individual and collective research, the articles explore—sociologically, ethnographically, and philosophically—how bioscience in the postgenomic age is changing our understanding of reproductive bodies, and more broadly, how it is challenging existing ideas of heredity, embodiment, kinship, and identity. Feminist and postcolonial theories of technoscience are at the heart of this collection, and our aim is to further biosocial thinking while being cognizant that practices of postgenomics also continue to reproduce deterministic paradigms. The concepts of “knowledge,” “experience,” and “justice” form the reference points animating our investigations. We bring these concepts into conversation with one another to disentangle how postgenomics operate differently on the reproductive body, namely on the levels of practice, discourse, and norms. This is an important exercise as it will enable social science and humanities scholars to evaluate the political capacities of postgenomics for the future study of reproduction.

Biolegality: How Biology and Law Redefine Sociality

“…By drawing a particular form of knowledge from nature about human nature, the (cultural) legal order becomes "naturalized." Subsequent developments in modern law give further evidence of the strong influence of natural history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the biological sciences from the nineteenth century onward, including evolutionary (Darwinian), eugenic, sociobiological, and behavioral models of jurisprudence (see for an overview, Van Wichelen & De Leeuw 2023).…”