ABSTRACT
In the moral and moralistic discursive productions surrounding key sectors of the life sciences, purgatorial themes and tropes retain (or, better, once again attain) a certain actuality. These concerns include a chronic sense that the future is at stake; a leitmotif among scientists, intellectuals, and sectors of the public turning on redeeming past moral errors and avoiding future ones; an awareness of an urgent need to focus on a vast zone of ambiguity and shading in judging actions and actors’ conduct; and a pressing need to define a mode of relationship to these issues.
