What is Bioconservatism?
Bioconservatism is a social, political, and moral stance that urges regulation and relinquishment of biotechnologies regarded by bioconservatives as dangerous, dehumanizing, or immoral. Common targets of regulation include the genetic modification (genetic engineering) of crops and animals (including humans), preimplantation genetic diagnosis, both therapeutic and reproductive cloning, stem cells, and human enhancement including radical life extension and cognitive modification. Bioconservatism is sometimes regarded as a “third dimension” of political orientation, along with the more conventional dimensions of social and economic liberalism/conservatism. What is distinctly unusual about bioconservatism is how it emerges from two groups that otherwise disagree about practically everything: religious conservatives and liberal environmentalists. Among religious conservatives, bioconservatism is best symbolized by the former President Bush’s President’s Council on Bioethics and its foundin
