Foucault and the Genetic Bureaucracy

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The recent news has been dominated by the earliest
interpretations from the Human Genome Project. In addition, a recent article
in Time. com has described incipient attempts at human cloning, which
have caused me to consider the philosophical meaning of these events. On one
hand, they represent the ultimate victory of Cartesianism; i.e. the
reductionist, empiricist enterprise to reduce every phenomenon to the "clear
and distinct ideas," in this case, the genetic blueprint of humanity, down to
every G, T, C and A on a computer screen. Or possibly, in a more
sociological critique, it is the ultimate expression of Max Weber's critique
of modernity, as a thorough "demystification" of our humanity, through a
"bureaucratization" and "quantification" of our experience, in short, a
triumph of a modernist-scientific ontology.
So the query concerns this question: how would Foucault perceive
these developments? Given his unease with health care bureaucracies, wouldn't
he be threatened by this inevitable, burgeoning network of genetic engineers,
genetic testers, gene therapists, etc? Isn't there the threat of an
emerging power-center, which will inevitably express the political agenda of
the bureaucrats? Won't there be an inevitable marginilization, just as there
has been in every social-services bureaucracy in history, as Foucault has
documented? Will "genetic construction" rival "social construction" as an
insidious threat imposed upon the individual? Does the emergence of the
genetic bureaucracy represent a heightened level of a Nietschzean "will to
power," as literal self-creation or genetic modification?
Does anyone have any comments concerning this query?
TRV

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<HTML>          The recent news has been dominated by  the earliest
 interpretations from the Human Genome Project.  In addition, a recent article
 in Time. com  has described incipient attempts at  human cloning,  which  
 have caused me to consider the philosophical meaning of these events. On one
 hand, they represent the ultimate victory of  Cartesianism; i.e. the
 reductionist, empiricist enterprise to reduce every phenomenon to the "clear
 and distinct ideas," in this case, the genetic blueprint of humanity, down to
 every G, T, C and A on a computer screen.  Or possibly, in a more
 sociological critique, it is the ultimate expression of Max Weber's critique
 of modernity, as a thorough "demystification" of our humanity, through a
 "bureaucratization" and "quantification" of our experience, in short, a
 triumph of a modernist-scientific ontology.
          So the query concerns this question: how would Foucault perceive
 these developments? Given his unease with health care bureaucracies, wouldn't
 he be threatened by this inevitable, burgeoning network of genetic engineers,
 genetic testers, gene therapists,  etc? Isn't there the threat of  an
 emerging power-center, which will inevitably express the political agenda of
 the bureaucrats? Won't there be an inevitable marginilization, just as there
 has been in every social-services bureaucracy in history, as Foucault has
 documented?   Will "genetic construction" rival "social construction" as an
 insidious threat  imposed upon the individual? Does the emergence of the
 genetic bureaucracy represent a heightened level of a Nietschzean "will to
 power," as  literal self-creation or genetic modification?   
           Does anyone have any comments concerning this query?
                                        TRV</HTML>

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