ABSTRACT
In many, if not most, public forums where the impact of new genetic technologies is debated, the voice of the expert tends to be privileged over the voice of the non-expert. Arguments generally polarize around contending professional viewpoints: the new technologies are portrayed as offering either unqualified benefits or, much less frequently, unmitigated dangers for ‘the public’. There is often a failure to acknowledge the diverse, and often complex, views and responses of the actual or potential ‘consumers’ of the new technologies. Further, despite an increasing emphasis on citizen participation in policy in general, there has been little exploration of the opportunities for diverse publics to be involved in decisions about the development or applications of the genetic technologies that affect them or are likely to affect them. This final chapter examines the diverse responses of those groups that have been, and are most likely to be, immediately and directly affected by the new genetics, and evaluates recent efforts to involve ‘the public’ in decisions about new genetic technologies. In the process we hope to unsettle some dominant assumptions about the new genetics, the self, and social relations, and present alternative ways of thinking about and evaluating the impact of new genetic technologies on people’s lives and relationships.
