The Bioethics of Horror and the Horror of Bioethics

Abstract: Horror, as emotion and genre, often challenges us to consider what it means to be human. This panel presents three distinct yet intersecting perspectives on the ways horror both informs and is informed by bioethics. Speaker 1, trained in literature, focuses on the meaning of “horror” as not just a genre, but the feeling for which the genre is named. Considering Frankenstein the first bioethics horror story, the presentation distinguishes between readers’ horror at the monster’s grotesque embodiment and Victor Frankenstein’s own moral anagnorisis, his horrified recognition of the appalling implications of his success. Speaker 2, trained in religious studies, claims that cases of bioethics often read as if they were horror stories. This presentation will examine bioethics cases as being akin to what Eugene Thacker has described as "unthinkable worlds," arguing that bioethics is a field that responds not only to the morality but also to the horror of existence. Speaker 3, trained in clinical ethics consultation and 20th century fiction, draws upon the previous two papers to consider the ways popular horror can facilitate public engagement with bioethics. Using Stephen King’s Carrie (1974) and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) the speaker will show that popular horror texts are not only a source of accessible, public-facing entertainment, but can also be read and analyzed as case studies which can, in turn, be used to encourage public-facing bioethical discussion, deliberation, and debate.