Mutationen des Gendiskurses: Der genetische Determinismus nach dem Humangenomprojekt

Abstract

In her new book Evelyn Fox Keller, historian of science, holds that genetic determinism will come to an end in the light of new scientific findings as a result of the Human Genome Project. This article claims that Keller’s thesis is not convincing. After a reconstruction of her central argument I analyse its implications as well as its practical conclusions. By pointing out to some serious theoretical problems, I present an alternative account of the relationship between genomic research, media representation and societal consequences. In the last part I also question the empirical relevance of the thesis that we witness the end of genetic determinism. By contrasting it with the scientific designs of two biomedical research projects I demonstrate that deterministic conceptions are still valid in genomic research. They are not disappearing, but rather reformulated in terms of epigenomic networks and systemic interactions.

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