Experiencing the New Genetics : Family and Kinship on the Medical Frontier

Over the past several decades there has been an explosion of interest in genetics and genetic inheritance within both the research community and the mass media. The science of genetics now forecasts great advances in alleviating disease and prolonging human life, placing the family and kin group under the spotlight. In Experiencing the New Genetics , Kaja Finkler argues that the often uncritical presentation of research on genetic inheritance as well as the attitudes of some in the biomedical establishment contribute to a "genetic essentialism," a new genetic determinism, and the medicalization of kinship in American society. She explores some of the social and cultural consequences of this phenomenon. Finkler discovers that the new genetics can turn a healthy person into a perpetual patient, complicate the redefinition of the family that has been occurring in American society for the past few decades, and lead to the abdication of responsibility for addressing the problem of unhealthy environmental conditions. Experiencing the New Genetics will assist scholars and general readers alike in making sense of this timely and multifaceted issue. "The case for bringing together issues in the new genetics and American kinship is very well made.... It takes contemporary kinship studies a major step forward." -- Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge" "Over the past several decades there has been an explosion of interest in genetics and genetic inheritance within both the research community and the mass media. The science of genetics now forecasts great advances in alleviating disease and prolonging human life, placing the family and kin group in the spotlight." "In Experiencing the New Genetics: Family and Kinship on the Medical Frontier, Kaja Finkler argues that the often uncritical presentation of research on genetic inheritance as well as the attitudes of some in the biomedical establishment contribute to a "genetic essentialism," a new genetic determinism, and the medicalization of kinship, leading to changes in our ideas about the significance and meaning of family and kinship in American society. We now feel an urgent need to remember our family through our medical history for the sake of knowing about our shared genes and genetic traits." "Finkler also explores the broader social and cultural consequences of this phenomenon by addressing two important and interrelated questions. How do people experience this new genetics, particularly within the context of their family and kinship relationships, and why has genetic inheritance become a major theme in contemporary life? The answers to these questions also come into view in individual narratives by people comprising three disparate groups. These narratives reveal the different consequences of the new genetics for people with dissimilar experiences." "Finkler discovers that the new genetics can turn a healthy person into a perpetual patient, contribute to the redefinition of the family that has been occurring in American society for the past few decades, and lead to the relinquishing of responsibility for addressing the problem of unhealthy environmental conditions. Experiencing the New Genetics will assist scholars and general readers alike in making sense of this timely and multifaceted issue. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET Over the past several decades there has been an explosion of interest in genetics and genetic inheritance within both the research community and the mass media. The science of genetics now forecasts great advances in alleviating disease and prolonging human life, placing the family and kin group in the spotlight.In Experiencing the New Genetics: Family, Kinship, and the Medical Frontier, Kaja Finkler argues that the often uncritical presentation of research on genetic inheritance as well as the attitudes of mine in the biomedical establishment contribute to a "genetic essentialism", a new genetic determinism, and the medicalization of kinship in American society. She explores some of the social and cultural consequences of this phenomenon. Finkler discovers that the new genetics can turn a healthy person into a perpetual patient, complicate the redefinition of the family that has been occurring in American society for the past few decades, and lead to the abdication of responsibility for addressing the problem of unhealthy environmental conditions. Experiencing the New Genetics will assist scholars and general readers alike in making sense of this timely and multifaceted issue.