S. Jasanoff (ed.): Reframing Rights: Bioconstitutionalism in the Genetic Age

Book details S. Jasanoff (ed.), Reframing Rights: Bioconstitutionalism in the Genetic Age, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2011: 310 pages, ISBN: 978-0-262-51627-3 Shelia Jasanoff ’s new edited volume on bioconstitutionalism provides an innovative and conceptually coherent analysis of the dynamic relationship between new technologies and constitutional frameworks. It is a most welcome introduction to a topic that requires extensive legal study and interdisciplinary enquiry. We learn from the Acknowledgments that the collection has been developed by academics affiliated with the Programme on Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at the J. F. Kennedy School of Government at the Harvard University. a It is indeed most telling that recent developments in life sciences and law have been defined in terms of constitutional theory by sociologists, anthropologists, bioethicists, and lawyers through the lenses of STS studies. b Despite an impressive body of legal writing analysing the effects of the biotechnological revolution on notions of legal personhood, subjectivity, human rights, and legitimacy, a comprehensive conceptualisation in constitutional theory is still lacking. This might stem from the fact that medical law, which deals with these issues more directly, has been traditionally associated with private rather than public law, and developed as a distinct category. Although exploring the reasons of such a development would be most interesting, it exceeds the scope of this book review. Although legal scholars – initially influenced by deterministic and essentialist views of genetics (Rothstein 2005, Rouvroy 2008, Huang 2000, Calvert 2008) – have been inventive in formulating new rights, including the right to genetic privacy (Gostin 1995, Dworkin 2000, Laurie 2002) reproductive autonomy, biological origins, or indeed ‘(gen-) informational self-determination’ (Enquete-Kommission des Deutschen Bundestag 2002, Stümper 1996) traditionally the legislative or judicial acknowledgement of these rights at the constitutional level has been slow and scarce. Consequently, theorisations have been fragmented, usually focusing on particular issues, e.g. reproductive medicine, stem cell research, genetic testing, or biobanks. Jasanoff ’s edited collection aims at addressing this gap. Therefore, it should interest a variety