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(2016) Symbolic legislation theory and developments in biolaw, Dordrecht, Springer.
From winged lions to frozen embryos, neomorts and human-animal cybrids
the functions of law in the symbolic mediation of biomedical hybrids
Britta van Beers
pp. 177-199
This chapter argues that legal discourse offers a vital contribution to the social-cultural symbolisation of biomedical hybrids. Products of biomedical developments, such as human immortal cellines, three parent babies, frozen embryos and synthetic human tissues, appear to be questioning the founding frameworks, categories and distinctions of our moral experience. The main reason is that these hybrid entities go beyond the categorical distinctions between, for example, person and thing, alive and dead, male and female and natural and artificial. Under these circumstances, law's intricate system of categories and constructions can become of vital importance in the collective effort to come to a cultural-symbolic understanding of these novel entities. In this chapter, law's symbolic functions in this process are elucidated, analysed and compared to other possible approaches.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-33365-6_11
Full citation:
van Beers, B. (2016)., From winged lions to frozen embryos, neomorts and human-animal cybrids: the functions of law in the symbolic mediation of biomedical hybrids, in B. Van Klink, B. Van Beers & L. Poort (eds.), Symbolic legislation theory and developments in biolaw, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 177-199.
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