street roots
10
Feb. 3, 2012
A deep divide wrought by the discovery of the double helix
BY SEAN HUGHES
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
BODY
POLITO
T H E RATTLE
OVER SCIEACE
IN A M ER IC A
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The Body Politic:
The Battle Over
Science in
America, by
Jonathan Moreno
onathan Moreno’s “The Body Politic: The
Battle Over Science in America” bridges
the academic and popular genres. It is an
J
erudite and sophisticated work, covering a
considerable amount of intellectually
substantial material in less than two hundred
pages of narrative. Moreno’s aim — in which
he succeeds — is to provide an historical and
philosophical framework to enrich present
bioethical debates.
The march of science is a particularly
American issue because the notion of
progress and belief in science were central to
the country’s founding. With the development
of the country led by scientifically inclined
people such as Thomas Jefferson and
Benjamin Franklin, it “is fair to say that no
nation has ever been founded by people who
were more oriented toward the pursuit and
propagation of knowledge than the United
States.” Indeed, the form of government was
itself an experiment. The influence of the
founders’ pro-science philosophy can still be
seen today in patent laws that allow the
patenting of genes, Moreno suggests.
Yet tension has long existed between a
desire for scientific progress and concern
over science’s tendency to undermine the
shared assumptions of society and life’s
mysteries. So, too, has science long been
exploited for nefarious ends: eugenics,
unethical medical experiments, atomic
weapons. The controversies playing out today
over possible misuse of new knowledge are
but contemporary manifestations of
ambivalence toward science.
Nonetheless, Moreno identifies the
elucidation of the structure of DNA as a
transition into a new period, a shift from
em p iric a l stu d ie s of biology to ratiom rt
......
COMMUNITY, from page 8
While the interim board is laying the
foundation for the co-operative with Massa’s
help, Ojeda continues to communicate with
the park’s seller. And Catto works to put
together a financing package to pay for the
park’s purchase. Purchasing the parks is
completely dependent on CASA’s ability to
secure loans and grants; the park’s residents
do not have the income or savings to pay for
the purchase. The purchase price for the
parks CASA has converted have been between
$800,000 and $1.5 million; the purchase price
of Vida Lea is approximately $1.25 million.
The goal, Catto says, is to purchase the
park at as close to market value as possible.
“Lenders aren’t going to approve much over
market value,” she says.
Among the financing for the Vida Lea
purchase is a $600,000 grant from the Oregon
Housing and Community Services department,
a loan from the Network for Oregon Affordable
Housing (NOAH), an affordable housing
developer, and other sources. The residents
also agreed to a small rent increase of between
$15 and $25 per month. “It changes,” Catto
says. “I’m always searching for different
financing sources.”
The process has not been without its
setbacks or challenges. There were some
points when it seemed that the seller was no
longer interested in selling the park. And
during a routine assessment of infrastructure,
which CASA does as part of the conversion
process, it was discovered that Vida Lea’s
septic system is, Massa says, “going to fail at
any moment.” New septic tanks and drainage
fields will be needed, to the tune of between
$250,000 and $300,000.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to Blythe and
others was simply calming the nerves of
residents who worried the financing would not
come through, which jeopardized the entire
deal. Until residents received word that
Oregon’s Community and Housing Services
department would be giving them the grant,
many doubted it would actually happen.
“We wouldn’t have been able to buy it,”
Blythe says. “The monthly payment for a loan
manipulation of the mechanisms of life. Since
that change, the rapid pace of scientific
discovery has brought more and more heated
debates. New alliances have formed in
response to these changes, upending
traditional right-left divides. Moreno argues
that debates are best understood as between
“bioconservatives,” those on the right and left
who are skeptical of scientific advances, and
“bioprogressives,” who are broadly pro
science.
Moreno is openly a bioprogressive, but
“The Body Politic” is no screed. He
rigorously and fairly examines the arguments
of bioconservatives on the right and left; in so
doing he unveils the philosophical and
historical frameworks underlying the
conflicts.
Rightist critiques of biotechnology tend to
be based in metaphysical and philosophical
concern over the ramifications developments
such as genetic engineering have for human
dignity and the concept of naturalness. In a
surprising but compelling turn, Moreno
argues that in addition to being heavily
influenced by a number of German
philosophers, it is Karl Marx in particular
who provides the intellectual foundation for
the arguments of bioconservatives on the
right. Central to their arguments are Marxist
notions of alienation and commodification,
applied to biotechnology rather than
capitalism, but coming to similar conclusions.
Bioconservatives on the left tend to be
concerned with possible environmental and
social justice consequences of
biotechnological developments, such as
pollution and corporate control of indigenous
farming practices. Moreno argues, in fact,
that leftist bioconservatives are more likely to
pragmatically aim to reduce the negative
eu n seq u u n eey of b io tech n o lo g y th a n to r e je c t
it wholesale.
Outside of this cerebral sphere, debates
over bioethics have become politicized and
heated. They’ve led to tragic spectacles such
as the prolonged media attention paid to
Terri Schiavo, who, while in a vegetative
state, was the center of a seven-year legal
battle to remove her from life support. (Two
weeks after her feeding tube was removed in
March 2005, Schiavo died.) Moreover,
profound differences in what issues become
salient in different regions suggest that
rarefied academic discourse doesn’t always
transfer equally into the political sphere. For
example, European publics are much more
likely than the American public to object to
genetically modified food — to the extent of
keeping it out of their markets — while
Americans are much more moved by all
things embryonic than are Europeans.
Perhaps most significantly, Moreno argues
for an offensive - rather than defensive -
attitude toward biotechnology. The notion of
human dignity and the definition of
naturalness have essentially been ceded to
bioconservatives; Moreno reclaims these for
bioprogressives. As he illustrates, to do so is
quite simple: advancements in the life
sciences lead to longer, healthier lives, giving
us the ability to thrive in previously
unimagined ways and thus providing the
possibility of heightened human dignity.
Moreover, naturalness need not be defined by
bioconservatives. After all, is not the use and
development of ever better tools a
fundamentally human trait?
“The Body Politic” is a challenging and
rewarding work for the serious student of the
interface between society and the life
sciences.
Reprinted from Real Change Newspaper,
Seattle, Wash.
would far exceed the input from the rent.”
The process to purchase Vida Lea is nearly
finished. Members of the board, along with
CASA, will make presentations to the various
organizations providing grants and loans. After
that, the money will be released. And by mid-
February, CASA will assign the purchase and
sale agreement to Vida Lea’s co-operative,
allowing them to formally purchase their park.
s turning parks into resident-owned
communities the solution to preserving
manufactured housing? Even the CASA staff
think it’s not possible to convert every park in
Oregon. Some owners won’t be willing to sell
them, and the purchase price of some parks,
such as Hayden Island’s, may be too large to
secure financing.
Rita Loberger lives in Tigard’s El Dorado
Mobile Villa park and is a board member of
Manufactured Housing-Oregon State Tenants
Association (MH-OSTA), a group that
advocates for manufactured housing park
residents. She thinks it’s impossible to convert
her park.
“The park has the original plumbing in it,”
she says. “They have never been replaced and
are becoming very porous. They’re leaking. It
would be millions of dollars.”
Van Landingham says there will be
residents who will be happy in their
retirement and unwilling to do the work
needed to sustain a cooperative. Peter Ferris,
a park resident in Waldport and
uncompromising manufactured housing park
advocate who created and headed up the
organization Oregon Manufactured
Homeowners United until he recently
resigned, says that if CASA converts one park
a year every year, it will take until 5030 to
finish. “It’s piecemeal” against the forces of
powerful and rich real estate, he says.
There is at least one more law Van
Landingham would like to get on the books
that would give tenants an “opportunity to
purchase,” a sort of right of first refusal that
would give them the first opportunity to buy
the park' if it went on the market.
“The park is beautiful now, but it’s going to
I
be really beautiful when we get through
redoing everything,” Blythe says.
In the coming months, Blythe will help
oversee all the maintenance and repairs at
Vida Lea. “I want to make sure that the park
is run in a proper manner and that all our
goals are completed in a timely manner,” he
says.
Fountain says it is important for the repairs
to take place right away. “We’re all low-income
people,” Fountain says. “We can’t afford any
big hits down the road. (When) we get it fixed
and updated ... we won’t have any major
expenses hanging over our heads.”
Another goal of the co-operative’s members
is to replace the RV section of the park with
units that are more permanent so that all of
Vida Lea’s residents live at the park on a
permanent basis. “That is our goal,” Fountain
says. “It’s gqing to take a few years, but I
think we can get there.”
Another thing that will take a few years is
something you don’t hear very often when you
talk about rental housing: lowering the rent.
Blythe says that once repairs are complete,
maintenance costs will be low enough for the
co-operative to start building a trust fund that
can be used to subsidize rent payments.
“We’re a nonprofit. We don’t need to make a
profit,” Fountain says. “Our whole goal is
affordable living.”
“I’m really looking forward to it.”
P H O TO CO URTESY
OF CASA
A home in Vida
Lea, where
residents are in
the process of
buying their
housing park