Biotechnology is the most powerful bundle of new technologies currently under development.
It is also the most intrusive and determinative technology relating to nature generally and the human body specifically. While commercial and scientific publicity has stressed the potential gains, a growing number of scientists, thinkers and activists have been warning of the grave risks and difficult ethical issues at stake. This Reader assembles some of the most important work from feminists and environmentalists critical of the headlong rush into what is likely to prove a technological minefield. A distinguished cast of contributors presents much-needed frameworks for understanding and contextualising the debates on biotechnological development. They explore the hidden implications and likely consequences of defining biotechnology as the latest wonder cure for environmental and developmental crisis.