Clarke, Adele E.Adele E.ClarkeShim, JanetJanetShimShostak, SaraSaraShostakNelson, AlondraAlondraNelson2023-08-182023-08-182009Clarke, Adele E., Janet Shim, Sara Shostak and Alondra Nelson, "Biomedicalizing Genetic Health, Diseases and Identities," in eds. Paul Atkinson, Peter Glasner, and Margaret Lock, 'Handbook of Genetics and Society: Mapping the New Genomic Era,' London: Routledge, 2009, 21-40.9780415410809https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12111/8159As the focus of the natural sciences shifted from cellular to molecular levels over the last half of the twentieth century, the question ‘What is life?’ has increasingly been raised. Rose (2007: 6–7) recently posited a parallel epistemic shift in biomedicine from the clinical gaze to the molecular gaze such that ‘we are inhabiting an emergent form of life’. Through biomedicine, molecularisation is transforming what Foucault called ‘the conditions of possibility’ for how life can and should be lived. The emergent biomedical molecular gaze offers possibilities of changing bios – ‘life itself’ – especially, but not only, through genetics and genomics. These new biomedical practices are increasingly transforming people’s bodies, identities and lives.en-USBook chapterhttps://doi.org/10.4324/9780203927380.ch3