ABSTRACT
The controversy surrounding the rapid advance of biotechnology and its promise to genetically enhance human beings is a recurring theme in political and academic debate. One theme common to science fiction literature is the radical separation of society into 'haves and have nots'. Conservative moral opposition to biotechnology is represented here chiefly by Jurgen Habermas and also by others such as Leon Kass. This is an imbalance which is fundamentally incompatible with liberal democracy because it can never be rectified. For conservative commentators, 'taboo' is not merely the pejorative term that it is for liberal consequentialists. More recent science-fiction is, of course, lighter on the Victorian moralism, but here also, depictions of future societies tend to involve the general lowering of moral expectations. Fictional works that imagine societies in which biotechnology delivers on its perceived promises are full of references to bodily functions.
