Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bioethical pastoral: Life, ethics, and the politics of human dignity

  • Original Article
  • Published:
BioSocieties Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The last decade of work on vital politics has seen a sharp and unexpected return to the figure of universal humanity. Despite this return, the canon of work on vital politics remains marked by a curious omission: little attention has been paid to the place of ‘human dignity’ in the governance of the biological body. The reasons for this omission are not obvious. After all, since World War II, talk of dignity has become a sine qua non of global counter-politics. If the reasons are not obvious, the significance is: dignitarian politics is distinguished by a refusal of the logic of biopolitics and an embrace of a political sensibility consistent with what Foucault called pastoral power: the demand that the pastorate must care, simultaneously, for all of the flock and for the soul of each member. This article seeks to highlight the place of pastoral power in the study of vital politics by examining one domain in which vital and dignitarian politics have become entangled: the figure of human dignity in bioethics. Tracing the situated ways dignity has been reimagined and remobilized in relation to the biopolitical body in the case of U.S. stem cell ethics, it seeks to cast new light on contemporary economies of life and power.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agamben, G. (1998) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agamben, G. (2016) The Use of Bodies. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal, A. (2010) Environment, community, government. In: Feldman, I. and Ticktin, M. (eds.) In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, G. (2016) Technicians of Human Dignity: Bodies, Souls, and the Making of Intrinsic Worth. New York: Fordham University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biehl, J. and Adrianna P. (2013) When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bornstein, E. and Redfield, P. (2011) Forces of Compassion: Humanitarianism Between Ethics and Politics. New York: SAR Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bush, G.W. (2001a) Stem Cell Policy Address. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec01/bushspeech_8-9.html. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Bush, G.W. (2001b) Executive Order 13237. http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/about/executive.html. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). (1987) Donum Vitae. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • De Castro, E.V. (2015) Cannibal Metaphysics. Minneapolis, MN: Univocal Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Descola, P. (2013) Beyond Nature and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dicke, K. (2002) The founding function of human dignity in the universal declaration of human rights. In: Kretzmer, D. and Klein, E. (eds.) The Concept of Human Dignity in Human Rights Discourse. The Hague: Kluwar Law International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doerflinger, R. (2006) Stem Cells: What Future for Therapy? http://old.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/RDRome91506speech.pdf. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Evans, J.H. (2002) Playing God?: Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fassin, D. (2009) Another Politics of Life is Possible. Theory, Culture & Society 26(5): 44–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fassin, D. (2011) Humanitarian Reason: A Moral History of the Present. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fassin, D. (2017) If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Faubion, J.D. (2001) Toward an Anthropology of Ethics: Foucault and the Pedagogies of Autopoesis. Representations 74(1): 83–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faubion, J.D. (2011) Toward and Anthropology of Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, I. and Ticktin, M. (2010) In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1990) History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. Robert Hurely, trans. New York: Vintage Books.

  • Foucault, M. (1998) What is enlightenment? In: P. Rabinow (ed.) Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, vol. 1. New York: The New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (2001) Questions of method. In: J.D. Faubion and P. Rabinow (eds.) Power: Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984 Vol. 3. New York: The New Press.

  • Foucault, M. (2007) Omnes et Singulatim. In The Politics of Truth. New York: Semiotext(e).

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France 1978–1979. In: M. Senellart, F. Ewald, A. Fontana, A.I. Davidson and G. Burchell (eds.) trans. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

  • Francis, P. (2015) Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home. New York: Melville House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, S. (2007) Dolly Mixtures: The Remaking of Genealogy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, S. (2014) Biological Relatives: IVF, Stem Cells, and the Future of Kinship. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbut, J.B. (2017) Experiments in Democracy: Human Embryo Research and the Politics of Bioethics. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • John, P., XXIII. (1962) Opening Address, Vatican II. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pope0261i.htm. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Jonsen, A. (2003) The Birth of Bioethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kass, L. (2002a) Opening address, PCBE. http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/transcripts/jan02/jan17.html. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Kass, L. (2002b) Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics. San Francisco: Encounter Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohn, E. (2013) How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kohn, E. (2015) Anthropology of Ontologies. Annual Review of Anthropology 2015(44): 311–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kretzmer, D. and Kline. E. (2002) The Concept of Human Dignity in Human Rights Discourse. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, A. (2010) Two Regimes of Global Health. Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 1(1): 59–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2013) An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2014) Agency at the time of the anthropocene. New Literary History 45(1): 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebacqz, K., Mendiola, M.M., Peters, T., Young, E.W.D. and Zoloth-Dorfman, L. (1999) Research with Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Ethical Considerations. Hastings Center Report 29(2): 31–36.

  • Liu, J. (2010) Making Taiwanese (stem cells): Identity, genetics, and hybridity. In: A. Ong and N.N. Chen (eds.) Asian Biotech: Ethics and Communities of Fate. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, N. (1998) Observations on modernity. (trans: William, Whobrey.). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macklin, R. (2003) Dignity is a useless concept. BMJ 327: 1419–1420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKeon, R. (1948) The Philosophic Bases. In Human Rights: Comments and Interpretations. London: Allan Wingate.

  • Meilander, G. (2009) Neither Beast Nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person. New York: Encounter Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milbank, J. (2005) The Suspended Middle: Henri de Lubac and the Debate concerning the Supernatural. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milbank, J. (2008) Paul against biopolitics. Theory, Culture & Society 25(7–8): 125–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyn, S. (2012) The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Cambridge: Belknap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. (1979) The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Nietzsche, F. (2006) Aphorism 58. In The Gay Science. Thomas Common, trans. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.

  • Normand, R. and Zaidi, S. (2008) Human Rights at the U.N.: The Political History of Universal Justice. Bloomington: India University Press.

  • Pandian, A. (2008) Pastoral power in the postcolony: On the biopolitics of the criminal animal in South India. Cultural Anthropology 23(1): 85–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pastor, F.-A. (1989) Human beings and their search for God: The doctrine of the magisterium of the church between Vatican I and Vatican II. In: R. Latourelle (ed.) Vatican II Assessment and Perspectives: Twenty-five Years After (1962–1987), Vol. Two. New York: Paulist Press.

  • Paul, P., VI. (1965) Gaudium et spes http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Peters, Ted. 2000. God – The World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a Post-Modern Era, 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, T. (2007) The Stem Cell Debate. Grand Rapids, MI: Fortress Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petryna, A. (2002) Life Exposed: Biological Citizens After Chernobyl. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli, E.A. (2016) Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • President’s Council on Bioethics (PCBE). (2003) Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • President’s Council on Bioethics (PCBE). (2008) Human Dignity and Bioethics: Essays Commissioned by the President’s Council on Bioethics. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, Paul and Gaymon Bennett. (2010) Contemporary Equipment: A Diagnostic. http://anthropos-lab.net/documents/contemporary-equipment-diagnostic. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Rabinow, P. and Rose, N. (2006) Biopower today. Biosocieties 1(2): 195–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. (2003) Anthropos Today: Reflections on Modern Equipment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. (2007) Marking Time: On the Anthropology of the Contemporary. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redfield, P. (2012) Bioexpectations: Life technologies as humanitarian goods. Public Culture 24(1(66)): 157–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redfield, P. (2013) Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Boarders. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees, T. (2014) Humanity/Plan; or, On the “Stateless” Today (Also Being an Anthropology of Global Health). Cultural Anthropology 29(3): 457–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, J. (2012) Dignity: A History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shultziner, D. (2003) Human dignity – functions and meanings. Global Jurist Topics 3(3): 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, J.A. et al. (1998) Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts. Science 282(5391): 1145–1147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, C. (2010) Asian regeneration? Nationalism and Internationalism in Stem Cell Research in South Korea and Singapore. In: A. Ong and N.N. Chen (eds.) Asian Biotech: Ethics and Communities of Fate. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ticktin, M. (2011) Casualties of Care: Immigration and the Politics of Humanitarianism in France. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tsing, A.L. (2015) The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (UN). (1992) Convention on Biodiversity. http://www.un.org/en/events/biodiversityday/convention.shtml. Accessed 13 August 2017.

  • United Nations (UN). (2005) Declaration on Human Cloning. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/ga10333.doc.htm. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • Warnock Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilization and Embryology. (1984) The Warnock Report http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/Warnock_Report_of_the_Committee_of_Inquiry_into_Human_Fertilisation_and_Embryology_1984.pdf. Accessed 5 Sept 2013.

  • West, M. (2003) The Immortal Cell: One Scientist’s Quest to Solve the Mystery of Human Aging. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Gaymon Bennett

Authors
  1. Gaymon Bennett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaymon Bennett.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bennett, G. Bioethical pastoral: Life, ethics, and the politics of human dignity. BioSocieties 13, 601–622 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-017-0111-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-017-0111-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation