A question of species Astonishment at the beginning of the human being

Abstract

The decoding of the human genome, aswell as current research on human stem cellsand early embryos, demands new legal andpolitical definitions of the human species.Both the act of limiting research on humanembryos, because they are themselves human, orthe act of permitting such research since theyare not human at all, entail a very newdefinition of the human species. Where politicsis confronted with the task of defining theessence and the anthropos of the human beingand of transforming this definition intolegitimated social actions, we must admit of anincrease in civil procedures. This debate isconstantly pushing at the borders of thedefinition of `humanness'; borders which bothlimit its definition and scope. The biosciencesnot only transgress such borders but alsosubstantially damage them; concerned subjectscannot proceed against such violations of theborders of `humanness'. The transposition of adistinct non-human life form into a human oneis endangering the human being as a distinctspecies. In this case, however, Carl Schmitt'stheory of politics, as an opposition to theenemy, becomes relevant to the human organismitself as it is challenged by the appearance ofnon-human forms of life within it.