Made not Born: The Troubling World of Biotechnology

by Casey Walker (Editor)

This collection of essays and interviews on biotechnology brings together the viewpoints of a group of people from the fields of science, literature, theology, ecology and activism.

180 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 2000

Reviews

[Graybird · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an anthology of articles (quite outdated, written about twelve years ago, before the WTO in Seattle!), poems, interviews, and other media about the all-consuming biotechnology movement: genetic engineering, transgenics, genetically-modified food, eugenics, et cetera. These pieces of writing all display a bias against biotechnology; however, I enjoyed that the motives behind these biases had a pretty solid range, from the Christian "sanctity of life" ideas to anti-civ-esque critiques of capitalism and commodification. The content of these articles range from intricately scientific to somewhat basic and reductionistic, but there is a good variety of solid information which I recommend as a good introduction to the world of biotechnology. (I particularly enjoyed "Critiquing the Biotech Worldview," an interview with Andrew Kimbrell.) Obviously, scientific and capitalist pushes for biotechnology have only increased since the book was written, rendering some of the information therein outdated, inaccurate, and simplistic compared to current literature on the subject, so that should be kept in mind when reading.