ABSTRACT
Originary ethics obeys a deep logic of essentialization, the results of which appear again and again in Heidegger's texts in regular, almost coded formulations of a mythical 'more essential' disaster that dwarfs the real factical disasters in which blood is spilled and flesh divided. The explosion of biotechnology has opened up a Brave New World of genetic engineering, combining scientific discovery and technical expertise to a level only dreamed of before in science-fiction narratives. The arena of the new reproductive technologies and the genetics phenomenon has been fiercely debated from all sides of the political, theological, scientific, philosophical and ethical spectrum. In 1988 the first genetically engineered mammal, Onco Mouse™, was patented. Spliced into her DNA sequencing are the genes responsible for breast cancer, programming her progeny to be forever sacrificed for the cause of human longevity. This new biotechnical paradigm has become culturally embedded into popular consciousness, with its tropes and symbols as familiar to us all as McDonalds.
