The Perfect Baby: Pragmatic Approach to Genetics - Softcover

Glenn McGee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0847683443 ISBN 13: 9780847683444

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (UK), 1996

Synopsis

Humankind is currently witnessing an unprecedented revolution in the science of genetics but struggling with the moral dilemmas that these advances have created. With the Human Genome Project, gene therapy, and evidence that genes are directly linked to homosexuality, intelligence, and obesity, we see that genetic discoveries may have the power to change the course of human life. Critics condemn genetic technology as playing God, while optimists promise genetic cures for every disease, an enhanced human nature, or the emancipation of women through technology. Both camps agree that we need to develop a radically new ethics for this era.

The Perfect Baby is a clarion call for a more realistic discussion of biotechnology. McGee challenges the common assumption that we are essentially determined by a genetic blueprint. He denies the necessity of a new Genethics, arguing that the wisdom we need can be found in the everyday experience of parents. The Perfect Baby dramatically alters the terms of the moral debate for parents, policymakers, scientists, philosophers, theologians, and physicians.

About this title

About the Author

Glenn McGee is assistant professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and senior fellow in health economics at the Leonard Institute of the Wharton School.

From the Back Cover

This book is an attempt to think and write about genetic interventions in a pragmatic way. Rather than reviewing the attacks on or defenses of genetic testing that have been written by the most prominent philosophers and theologians, we deal here with the texts actually read by scientists and parents.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (UK)
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0847683443
• ISBN 13: 9780847683444
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184