“Jimmy didn’t envy him. (He envied him.)”: Social and personal consequences of liberal eugenics in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy

Abstract

The article interprets Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy as an important, critical voice in the debate over desirability of liberal eugenics – genetic programming of children that is regulated only by the market forces of supply and demand. Arguing that the trilogy indicates potential effects of liberal eugenics on both the functioning of society and an individual’s sense of self, the article refers to a number of theoretical texts coming from the fields of bioethics, social psychology and anthropology, but its primary source of argumentation lies in the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas.