Brave New Biocracy

"What I fear is that the abstract, secular notion of "a life" will be sacralized, thereby making it possible that this spectral entity will progressively replace the notion of a "person" in which the humanism of Western individualism is anchored. "A life" is amenable to management, to improvement and to evaluation in a way which is unthinkable when we speak of "a person." The transmogrification of a person into "a life" is a lethal operation, as dangerous as reaching out for the tree of life in the time of Adam and Eve."

- Ivan Illich, Brave New Biocracy