THE ETHICS OF BIOLOGY IN THE FACE OF TRANS EXISTENCE: REDUCTIONISM, SUBJECTIVITY, AND THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

ABSTRACT Biology is a fundamental science for understanding life, operating from a physicalist baseline. However, this perspective faces a significant challenge when attempting to fully encompass the subjective nature of human consciousness. This article argues that while mental properties may depend on physical properties (emergence), they are not completely reducible to them. The text advocates for an ethical stance within biology that avoids determinism, reductionism, medicalization, and the pathologization of trans existence. Robust data from neuroscience, genetics, and endocrinology should serve to illuminate aspects of physical involvement without nullifying the self-identified experience of trans individuals, whose existence is treated as an axiomatic fact. The current scientific challenge lies not in validating trans lives, but in addressing the sociocultural resistances that hinder their recognition, allowing biology to fulfill its ethical commitment to human complexity and inclusivity.