Abstract

MORAN FAUNDES, José Manuel  and  MORGAN, Lynn M.. Life is not one thing: the political uses of “life” in Latin America. Culturales [online]. 2018, vol.6, e326. ISSN 2448-539X.  https://doi.org/10.22234/recu.20180601.e326.

This article analyzes the many ways in which the “defense of life” discourse has been mobilized for differing political uses in Latin America, considering the meanings ascribed to this banner of struggle from the demand for protection of life advocated by the human rights movements of the late twentieth century, to processes surrounding the biopoliticization of life. In particular, we analyze three cases that show how life mobilizes different and even conflicting agendas: the defense of legal abortion advocated by feminist movements to prevent the death of women; the defense of life from conception advocated by the Catholic hierarchy; and the defense of human life and the planet, mobilized by socio-environmental groups. Despite the growing consensus reached by the expansion of human rights regarding the need to protect life, the article shows how -far from being neutral- life is a politically disputed signifier.

Keywords : life; rights; social movements; Latin America.

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