DISRUPTED BOUNDARIES - NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND THE LANGUAGEOF ANXIETY AND EXPECTATION

In this Comment, we elaborate upon Mulkay's discussion of the rhetoric s of hope and fear in the UK debate over research on human embryos, by focusing on the narrative strategies and cultural presuppositions tha t allow certain technological developments to be (re)presented as 'hop eful' or 'fearsome'. We argue that boundary talk and its associated vo cabularies of purify and pollution provide Mulkay's rhetorics with a s emantic construction kit. They are the means through which 'hope' and 'fear', as rhetorical effects, are achieved. Finally, we discuss the w ider significance that could be attributed to these discursive moves - that is, as pointers to how the relationship of a culture to its tech nologies is constituted.