Abstract:

Jürgen Habermas’s recent critique of human genetic enhancements reaches
similar conclusions to many Christian theological analyses of genetic technologies.
However, his use of categories drawn from his general theory of
communicative action fails to justify central distinctions such as those
between the natural and the artificial, and between environmental and
genetic enhancements. In fact he holds much in common with the more
libertarian approach of ‘liberal eugenics’ which he rightly rejects: this is
traced to the deficient account of nature and the body which they both
share. By contrast Christian theology, by drawing out the significance of
the goodness of creation, offers an alternative narration of the distinctions
which places them in the context of a theology of the body of Christ.

Author: Robert Song