Genes and genetics play a central role in our current social understandings of humanness, family and community. Existing and emerging reproductive genetic technologies have enormously beneficial and potentially dangerous implications for human relationships and society. They can possibly lead to the increased commodification of human bodies, the exacerbation of existing social inequalities, the objectification of children, and the re-emergence of a scientific (genetic) form of racism. While these technologies offer increased reproductive freedom for some populations (e.g., LGBTQ; infertile women and men), they also pose troubling implications for vulnerable communities. Some technologies, such as cloning and inheritable genetic modification, are alarming because they will require experimentation on women and children. And the use of women as egg donors or surrogates can easily lead to exploitation of economically vulnerable populations and dangerous health effects.
These technologies already allow parents to choose the sex of their offspring—a development that reinforces gender stereotypes and further devalues female children in some communities. They also allow parents to prevent the birth of children with potential disabilities, raising serious concerns about the devaluation of people with disabilities. Increasingly genetics are used to code for identity and race in the criminal justice system and in health care. While DNA forensics have played a significant role in the exoneration of many innocent people, primarily men of color, we are also witnessing a massive expansion in the collection and use of DNA profiles. The existing racial bias in the criminal justice system is being replicated and deepened with these databanks. In the near future it is likely that those with more economic resources will be able to “enhance” children’s traits, leading to increasingly entrenched inequalities and the pursuit of “perfect” or “designer” children. How we as a society decide to balance the benefits with the risks is a crucial public policy concern. For many years, feminist and eugenics scholars have voiced serious concerns about these technologies, but current political conditions have forced social justice organizations to defend basic rights and left activists with few resources to address social implications of new technologies. Existing frameworks such as “choice” and “privacy” fail to take into account the unintended consequences of new technologies, such as the implications of race-specific medications or the ability to “choose” a light-skinned child.
Furthermore, there are significant tensions between different social justice groups, with the apparent interests of some clashing with those of others. As a result of these challenges, reproductive justice advocates, communities of color, disability advocates, LGBTQ communities and other social justice constituencies have not, until recently, engaged with these issues on any meaningful level, nor have they been able to develop a collective, proactive agenda. This has left a worrying vacuum in a discussion that is currently dominated by commercial interests, research scientists and religious conservatives.
Because these technologies and the issues they raise are so new and far-reaching, building an effective social movement to address them means we have to engage a wide range of constituencies and proactively develop shared strategies, principles and goals. This demands education, capacity-building, and cross-movement alliances so that we can establish a multi-movement network that will create and advocate for a collective policy agenda based on shared values of human rights, equity, justice and dignity. Given what is at stake, any public understanding and policy-making about how these technologies are used needs to be inclusive and participatory. As the use of genetic technologies expands, new networks are needed to unite people through shared principles, strategies and agendas, to ensure that these technologies will be used in responsible ways such that inequality does not get encoded into our human genome.
We believe that just and responsible policies can only be developed by including the perspectives and priorities of communities of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ communities, Indigenous communities, economically vulnerable communities, young people, families, and women in the national discourse, and that the needs and concerns of these constituents should be integral in any policy-making. We are building and mobilizing a critical new network of social justice organizations and leaders towards this goal.