Overview
Developments in genetic science are opening up new possibilities for human beingsboth the creation and the shaping of human life are now possible in the laboratory. As these techniques develop, questions are increasingly asked about how far everything that is scientifically possible should - morally, legally and socially - be pursued. Whilst much attention and policy-making has focussed on the development of regulation of technologies affecting human reproduction, regulation where plants and animals are concerned is much more limited. In this book, developments in genetics are addressed in the broad sense by an international range of contributors. This includes not only issues such as eugenics and the modification of the human embryo, but also the genetic modification of plants and animals in the pursuit of commerce, agriculture and biomedical research.
This book is published in association with the Society for Applied Philosophy.
About the Author:
Brenda Almond, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Hull, UK and Michael Parker, Dr, Medical Ethicist, ETHOX Centre, Oxford University, UK.
Synopsis
This text originated in an international conference organized by the Society of Applied Philosophy at the U. of Manchester, UK, bringing together European, American, and Canadian scholars from a wide range of disciplines to investigate and discuss the nature of ethical and social challenges arising from developments in genetics and biotechnology, and how they might best be handled. Two of the chapters have been previously published in academic journals. Following an introduction examining the ethical background of the new genetics, 15 chapters are organized into sections on the genetic modification and invention of human beings; genetics, determinism and personal identity; and genes and the non-human world. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR