Biotechnology: Our Future as Human Beings and Citizens (SUNY series in Philosophy and Biology)

Considers the ethics and challenges of biotechnology.

An essential introduction to a controversial yet crucial field of research, Biotechnology surveys recent advances in the field and offers a wide range of opinions for and against expanding this new branch of science. Incisively examining such key topics as therapeutic cloning, genetic enhancement, stem cell therapy, and the use of psychotropic drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin, contributors to this volume agree that biotechnology will inevitably change human life. However, they debate the right way to balance the potential to cure disease and relieve human suffering with the need to respect life and preserve human dignity. Several explore the way major religions—both Eastern and Western—treat the subject. Others analyze the role of government in biotechnology and specific applications of the technology that should be practiced. Serving as an introduction to this ethically complicated and significant scientific movement, the book ultimately raises the broader, fundamental question of the meaning of human flourishing.

“The chapters present the insights of authors working in biology, ethics, history, philosophy, political science, religious studies, scientific journalism, and medicine. In this way, each affords a disciplinary vision and, when taken together, each and all contribute to the discourse (and debate) about whether biotechnology is the most current, shining attribute of our humanity, or a tool and trend that moves us farther from our nature.” — Quarterly Review of Biology

"…[a] stimulating book." — CHOICE

“There is no other book by such a wide spectrum of thinkers—Sutton offers us original articles with well-articulated alternative positions.” — Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines