Unzipped genes : taking charge of baby-making in the new millennium
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Bibliographic Information
Unzipped genes : taking charge of baby-making in the new millennium
（America in transition, Radical perspectives）
Temple University Press, 1997
- : hbk
- : pbk
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Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9781566395229
Description
How will we handle baby-making and pregnancy in the next 5, 25, and 75 years? New reproductive technology, genetic screening, and DNA-mapping have changed the 20th-century rules. In this revolutionary manifesto, Martine Rothblatt proposes a code of ethics to guide childbirth decisions in the brave new world of biotechnology. The trigger for Unzipped Genes is the Human Genome Project, a multibillion dollar effort to unlock the secrets of each person's genetic code. This new \u0022genomic\u0022 knowledge can be used for tremendous good, such as curing disease, or unprecedented harm such as the kinds of master race eugenes already visible in Asia, where social pressures force families to choose to abort female fetuses. Without a bioethics of birth, we risk creating a new kind of racism, which Rothblatt calls \u0022genism,\u0022 based on officially sanctioned genetic characteristics. Unregulated genetic decision-making can open the door to invasion of privacy, efforts to eliminate certain of people from the gene pool, or governments or corporate efforts to gain control of the human genome. Rothblatt bases her bioethics of birth on four principles designed to empower the beneficial potential of genomics without unleashing genism. First, we must agree that the human genome belongs indivisibly to us all. Second, we must allow each persona an unfettered right to intentionally create in his or her children new versions of the genome without limitations on its genetic characteristics. Third, we must insist that society has a right to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. And finally, we must ensure that genetically influenced characteristics -- from skin tone to predisposition to disease, from sexual orientation to various mental inclinations -- will not be the basis of discrimination of any kind. Writing concretely and persuasively, Rothblatt explains the biotechnology of the Human Genome Project in terms we all can understand. Not limiting her bioethics to the realm of abstraction, she maintains that her new bioethics of birth will lead to the end of abortion and unwanted pregnancy and the creation of a world in which people can achieve a greater solidarity with one another.
Table of Contents
Series Editor's Foreword
Author's Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I: Sex and the Genie of Life
1. The Holocaust of Sex
2. Genomic Imperialism and Democide: The Age of Discovery Reborn
Part II: The Biotechnology of Birth
3. Personal Eugenics: My Perfect Baby
4. Social Eugenics: My Perfect Society
5. Transgenic Creationism: My Perfect Monster
Part III: The Bioethics of Birth
6. Sharing Our Genome: The Fabric of Life
7. Expressing Our Genome: Intentional Life
8. Controlling Our Genome: Unintentional Life
9. Respecting Our Genome: Ending the Crime
Afterword: Coming Next: An Age of Euthenics
Appendix: International Documents on Genomic Rights
Index
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9781566395540
Description
How will we handle baby-making and pregnancy in the next 5, 25, and 75 years? New reproductive technology, genetic screening, and DNA-mapping have changed the 20th-century rules. In this revolutionary manifesto, Martine Rothblatt proposes a code of ethics to guide childbirth decisions in the brave new world of biotechnology. The trigger for Unzipped Genes is the Human Genome Project, a multibillion dollar effort to unlock the secrets of each person's genetic code. This new \u0022genomic\u0022 knowledge can be used for tremendous good, such as curing disease, or unprecedented harm such as the kinds of master race eugenes already visible in Asia, where social pressures force families to choose to abort female fetuses. Without a bioethics of birth, we risk creating a new kind of racism, which Rothblatt calls \u0022genism,\u0022 based on officially sanctioned genetic characteristics. Unregulated genetic decision-making can open the door to invasion of privacy, efforts to eliminate certain of people from the gene pool, or governments or corporate efforts to gain control of the human genome.
Rothblatt bases her bioethics of birth on four principles designed to empower the beneficial potential of genomics without unleashing genism. First, we must agree that the human genome belongs indivisibly to us all. Second, we must allow each persona an unfettered right to intentionally create in his or her children new versions of the genome without limitations on its genetic characteristics. Third, we must insist that society has a right to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. And finally, we must ensure that genetically influenced characteristics -- from skin tone to predisposition to disease, from sexual orientation to various mental inclinations -- will not be the basis of discrimination of any kind. Writing concretely and persuasively, Rothblatt explains the biotechnology of the Human Genome Project in terms we all can understand. Not limiting her bioethics to the realm of abstraction, she maintains that her new bioethics of birth will lead to the end of abortion and unwanted pregnancy and the creation of a world in which people can achieve a greater solidarity with one another.
Table of Contents
Series Editor's Foreword Author's Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Sex and the Genie of Life 1. The Holocaust of Sex 2. Genomic Imperialism and Democide: The Age of Discovery Reborn Part II: The Biotechnology of Birth 3. Personal Eugenics: My Perfect Baby 4. Social Eugenics: My Perfect Society 5. Transgenic Creationism: My Perfect Monster Part III: The Bioethics of Birth 6. Sharing Our Genome: The Fabric of Life 7. Expressing Our Genome: Intentional Life 8. Controlling Our Genome: Unintentional Life 9. Respecting Our Genome: Ending the Crime Afterword: Coming Next: An Age of Euthenics Appendix: International Documents on Genomic Rights Index
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