In the Hot Tub: The Praxis of Building New Alliances for Reprogenetics

Abstract

While there has been debate among feminist scholars and in academic circles about the benefits and risks associated with reprogenetics, social justice advocates are only just getting involved in the public debates on ensuring responsible uses of new genetic technologies. The social implications of reprogenetics present complex and contradictory challenges to different social justice sectors. These tensions between movements present significant barriers to the important participation of social justice advocates in this debate.Because human genetics play an integral role in how most people understand who they are, who their family is, and how they are connected to other groups of people, these developments cannot be left within the isolated domain of scientists alone. The stakes in this debate and policy making are high: reproductive autonomy for women, the valuation of children, the geneticization of race and difference, access to the technologies, and in some cases, the very survival of certain people. While feminist scholars continue to warn us of the dangers of reprogenetics, they have most often been mute about how to move a feminist and social justice forward in this arena.This article examines the challenges, dilemmas, and strategies in advocacy and policy making on reprogenetics from a social justice and feminist perspective. It is an accounting of the practical strategies that are currently being employed by one organization, Generations Ahead, to build the new alliances needed to ensure that reprogenetics are used in inclusive and just ways. Some of the unanticipated tensions between social justice sectors are described, and the strategies used to move advocates through fundamental differences toward shared agendas are delineated. These strategies are rooted in feminist practices of relationship and trust building, acknowledging a diversity of perspectives, and engaging in difficult dialogues to resolve tensions.