Capitalism’s New Handmaiden: the Biotechnical World Negotiated Through Children’s Fiction

In an era when the merger between capitalism and science becomes an accepted norm, new questions need to be asked about the ethical implications of scientific practices. One such practice is organ transplantation. However, potent debates surround the just distribution and ethical implications of organ transplantation. This paper examines the ways in which children are socialised through children’s literature to accept or challenge the dominant ideologies underpinning organ transplantation. It argues that how subjectivity is constructed informs understandings of agency, and this in turn can deliver new approaches to concerns about scientific practices. This paper draws from a conference paper delivered at the Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research (ACLAR), Wellington, NZ, 2008. Naarah Sawers is an Alfred Deakin post doctoral researcher for Professor Clare Bradford in the school of communications and creative arts at Deakin University, Australia. Her research areas focus on representations of bioethics in fictional and filmic texts for children, and environmental ethics and agendas in computer games for children.