Literary Investigations into Bioethics and Biolaw. The Example of Jodi Picoult.

In our contemporary times the increasing progress in biotechnologies has paved the way to profound challenges to basic notions defining our human existence. The meddling of technology with matters of life and death has led to the emergence of new forms of “liminal beings” and to the subsequent crisis of personhood, in moral and legal terms. Paramount concepts, such as autonomy, dignity and the very assumption of human finitude, need to be reframed in the light of unprecedented innovations and possibilities. Technical enthusiasm is inevitably compelled to be confronted with ethical anxiety, in order to evaluate the licitness of pervasive interventions into human nature. The multidisciplinary encounter of literature, bioethics and biolaw offers the opportunity to investigate the impacts on human life stemming from scientific potentialities and pretensions. Within the body of literary works dealing with bioethical and bio-legal issues, this study focuses on modern English and Anglo-American Literature. Two novels of the contemporary American writer, Jodi Picoult, are scrutinised in detail. Her literary production is chiefly devoted to inspect medical moral dilemmas that affect our society, providing a compelling framework for discussion on their legal implications on individual life and on generations to come. In the selected novels, the author delves into the topics of bioengineering and “savior siblings” (My Sister’s Keeper, 2004) and into the context of end-of-life decision-making (Mercy, 1996). Her narrative example significantly deepens the dialogues interlinking literature, bioethics and biolaw.