Man on the throne of God? The societal implications of the bio-medical revolution

The article deals with the possible influences on society of developments in the bio-medical field (which is argued that will be the main topic of this decade) especially cloning, ‘the Book of life’ and eugenics. It is argued that the present resistance against these developments may diminish under the influence of biologism which is on the rise. The author investigates these societal influences in four fields: the welfare state (will the notion of collective solidarity disappear), citizenship, meritocracy (can we expect new class divisions?) and democratic politics (the rise of new political cleavages).