Cyborgs and “Custom-made Babies” 2.0: Acceptance of Posthuman Life Conceptions in Croatian Society

Razvoj suvremene biotehnologije i bioznanosti otvara mnoge mogućnosti, pitanja i prijepore, ne samo u smislu općih društvenih, kulturnih i ekonomskih promjena, nego i u smislu promjena u izgradnji ljudskog identiteta i kriterija određivanja samoga ljudskog bića. U teorijskom smislu rad se temelji na teorijskim stajalištima posthumanizma, transhumanizma i biokonzervativizma. U empirijskom smislu rad se temelji na rezultatima empirijskog istraživanja provedenog 2009. godine na reprezentativnom uzorku punoljetnog stanovništva Hrvatske (N = 1000). U radu se analiziraju dvije koncepcije poslijeljudskog života: »kiborg« i »dijete po narudžbi«. Opća hipoteza rada jest da će spomenute koncepcije poslijeljudskog života, s obzirom na pretpostavljenu tradicionalnost sociokulturnog konteksta hrvatskog društva, biti prihvaćene tek u manjoj mjeri. Osim toga, u radu se postavlja i više radnih hipoteza. Dobiveni rezultati potvrđuju opću hipotezu rada, dok dio radnih hipoteza nije potvrđen.Development of contemporary biotechnology and bioscience is opening many possibilities, questions and controversies, not only in the sense of broader social, cultural and economic changes, but largely in the sense of human identity construction and determination criteria for human beings. This paper is based on the theories of posthumanism, transhumanism and bioconservativism. In the empirical sense it is based on the results of a survey that was conducted during the year 2009 on the representative sample of Croatian adult citizens (N = 1000). “Cyborg” and “custom-made baby” are analyzed in this paper, as two conceptions of posthuman life. The general hypothesis is that these conceptions of posthuman life will not be accepted, mainly because of the traditional socio-cultural context in Croatian society. Furthermore, several working hypotheses are proposed. Results have confirmed the general hypothesis; however most of the working hypotheses were not confirmed