The case against perfection : ethics in the age of genetic engineering
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The case against perfection : ethics in the age of genetic engineering
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009, c2007
- : pbk
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Note
"First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2009."--T.p. verso
Some copies lack pbk ed. statement
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
"Sandel explores a paramount question of our era: how to extend the power and promise of biomedical science to overcome debility without compromising our humanity. His arguments are acute and penetrating, melding sound logic with compassion."
-Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think
Breakthroughs in genetics present us with a promise and a predicament. The promise is that we will soon be able to treat and prevent a host of debilitating diseases. The predicament is that our newfound genetic knowledge may enable us to manipulate our nature-to enhance our genetic traits and those of our children. Although most people find at least some forms of genetic engineering disquieting, it is not easy to articulate why. What is wrong with re-engineering our nature?
The Case against Perfection explores these and other moral quandaries connected with the quest to perfect ourselves and our children. Michael Sandel argues that the pursuit of perfection is flawed for reasons that go beyond safety and fairness. The drive to enhance human nature through genetic technologies is objectionable because it represents a bid for mastery and dominion that fails to appreciate the gifted character of human powers and achievements. Carrying us beyond familiar terms of political discourse, this book contends that the genetic revolution will change the way philosophers discuss ethics and will force spiritual questions back onto the political agenda.
In order to grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions largely lost from view in the modern world. Since these questions verge on theology, modern philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them. But our new powers of biotechnology make these questions unavoidable. Addressing them is the task of this book, by one of America's preeminent moral and political thinkers.
Table of Contents
1. The Ethics of Enhancement 2. Bionic Athletes 3. Designer Children, Designing Parents 4. The Old Eugenics and the New 5. Mastery and Gift Epilogue. Embryo Ethics: The Stem Cell Debate Notes Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
