Biotechnology and Ethics Theme Analysis

In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, science has extreme destructive capabilities—but forswearing science is not the answer. Instead, the novel suggests that  people should responsibly consider how to use scientific advancements on a case-by-case basis. The science-fiction novel takes place in a near-future U.S. where overuse of antibiotics has led to the development of many antibiotic-resistant infections. One such infection, the Aureus epidemic, ended up killing about 25 percent of the world’s population in protagonist Jenna Fox’s childhood. In response to the epidemic, a new federal organization, the Federal Science Ethics Board (FSEB), begins zealously regulating biotechnological research and medical treatment. Though science has made massive strides in developing prostheses and biotech organs built from a neurochip-loaded goo called Bio Gel, the FSEB won’t allow prostheses or transplants beyond a certain point: it dictates that people’s brains must remain 51 percent original human tissue by law, so if a patient needs more than that level of care, they are consigned to death. Through of Jenna’s example—her biotech-pioneer father has illegally rebuilt her after only 10 percent of her brain tissue survived a traumatic car accident and subsequent infection—the novel suggests that assigning a necessary minimum percentage to “humanity” is an unnecessary and harmful restriction on life-saving technologies. By comparing Jenna to Allys, a classmate who is ultimately consigned to death because her body already contains the maximum allowed percentage of engineered technologies, the novel shows the human costs of placing arbitrary constraints on helpful technologies: people will die unnecessarily. Instead of assigning such random percentages, the novel suggests that people should carefully think through which scientific interventions are harmful and which are helpful. Doing this—rather than implementing arbitrary rules—is how the novel suggests medicine can be used ethically to do the most good.