This updated and revised second edition analyzes the current literature regarding various ethical issues. Includes a new chapter on stem cell research and expanded material on other topics.

One of the key issues facing us in the next millennium is the ability to manipulate the genetics of living organisms. The possibility of manipulating human genetics raises many theological, ethical and socio-political issues. These include specific decisions about whether the technology will be developed, how it will be applied and more general questions about the technical manipulation of 'natural' processes. From a theological perspective the human genome project not only challenges particular doctrines, such as that of creation, eschatology and anthropology, but also raises particular issues of social justice and medical ethics. The purpose of this book is to bring together the collective expertise of theologians, scientists and social scientists in order to provide a forum for critique and public debate focused on the human genome project.It is hoped that the results presented in this book offer a sophisticated theological and ethical response.

This collection of essays provides new readings of Huxley’s classic dystopian satire, Brave New World (1932). Leading international scholars consider from new angles the historical contexts in which the book was written and the cultural legacies in which it looms large. The volume affirms Huxley’s prescient critiques of modernity and his continuing relevance to debates about political power, art, and the vexed relationship between nature and humankind. Individual chapters explore connections between Brave New World and the nature of utopia, the 1930s American Technocracy movement, education and social control, pleasure, reproduction, futurology, inter-war periodical networks, motherhood, ethics and the Anthropocene, islands, and the moral life. The volume also includes a ‘Foreword’ written by David Bradshaw, one of the world’s top Huxley scholars. Timely and consistently illuminating, this collection is essential reading for students, critics, and Huxley enthusiasts alike.

In a reassessment of the meaning of life and death, a noted philosopher offers a new definition for life that contrasts a world dependent on biological maintenance with one controlled by state-of-the-art medical technology.

" Scare headlines about the first human clones appear in our newspapers. Biotech companies brag about manufacturing human embryos as "products" for use in medical treatments. Events are moving so fast—and biotechnology seems so complicated—that many of us worry we can’t keep up. But now, Wesley J. Smith provides us with a guide to the brave new world that is no longer a figment of our imagination, but a reality just around the corner of our lives. Smith unravels the mystery of stem cells and shows what’s at stake in the controversy over using them for research. He describes the emerging science of human cloning—the most radical technology in history—and shows how it moves forward inexorably against the moral consensus of the world. But at the core of this highly readable and carefully researched book is a report on the gargantuan "Big Biotech" industry and its supporters in the universities and the science and bioethics establishments. Smith reveals how the lure of huge riches, mixed with the ideology of "scientism," threatens to impose on society a "new eugenics" that would dismantle ethical norms and call into question the uniqueness and importance of all human life. "At stake," he warns, "is whether science will continue to serve society, or instead dominate it." In Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, Smith presents a clear-eyed vision of two potential futures. In one, we will use biotechnology as a powerful tool to treat disease and improve the quality of our lives. But in another, darker scenario, we will be steered onto the antihuman path that Aldous Huxley and other prophetic writers warned against half a century ago. "

First and only undergraduate textbook that addresses the social and ethical issues associated with a wide array of emerging technologies, including genetic modification, human enhancement, geoengineering, robotics, virtual reality, artificial meat, neurotechnologies, information technologies, nanotechnology, sex selection, and more.

Speaker's Corner Books is a provocative new series designed to stimulate, educate, and foster discussion on significant public policy topics. Written by experts in a variety of fields, these brief and engaging books should be read by anyone interested in the trends and issues that shape our society. Long target of policymakers and reformers, the current American healthcare system is, in the words of Richard D. Lamm, "unsustainable, unaffordable, and inequitable, and needs to be substantially amended and revised." In this informed and erudite look at the current state of the American healthcare system, Lamm exposes the problems existing not only in policy and professional circles, but also in public attitudes and expectations. In so doing, Lamm provides a framework for reform, seeking to rebuild the "house of healthcare" that has into disrepair.