Designer Biology

Informationen zum Autor Edited by Ronald L. Sandler and John Basl - Contributions by Immaculada de Melo Martin; Valentina Urbanek; David A. Frank; William Kabasenche; Nicholas Agar; S. Matthew Liao; Anders Sandberg; Rebecca Roache; Allen Thompson; Stephen Jackson; Donald S. Maie Klappentext This book consists of thirteen chapters that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering, human enhancement, sex selection, genetic modification, and synthetic biology. Humans have always been 'engineering animals' as Sandler and Basl remind us in their introduction. But the degree to which this one species can now intensively transform itself, the global ecology, and other life forms means that today we stand on the cusp of something truly startling. In attempting to integrate discussion of what is at stake ethically at some of these frontiers, the essays collected here both agitate and entice. At times wildly provocative and combative, at others gently reassuring and humanistic, these well-written contributions show how the boundaries between ethics, management, and policy are quickly blurring and how deeply held cultural meanings are starting to shift. Dealing with topics in both daily news and in cutting-edge academic journals, read this collection to get educated in the ethics of a fast evolving technosphere. -- Christopher J. Preston, The University of Montana Zusammenfassung This book consists of thirteen chapters that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering! human enhancement! sex selection! genetic modification! and synthetic biology. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Contributor Biographies Introduction I. Engineering Humans Chapter 1: Sex Selection and the Value-Ladenness of the Procreative Liberty Framework Chapter 2: The Ethics of Embryo Selection Chapter 3: Assessing Efficacy of "Neuroenhancing" Drugs: Normative Problems in Empirical Controversies Chapter 4: Engineering for Virtue? Toward Holistic Moral Enhancement Chapter 5: Radical Enhancement and What' Wrong with It Chapter 6: Human Engineering and Climate Change II. Engineering the Environment Chapter 7: The Human Influence: Moral Responsibility for Novel Ecosystems Chapter 8: Why Scientists Should Get Out of Nature Conservation Chapter 9: What it Takes to Justify Geoengineering the Climate Chapter 10: Remediation vs. Steering: An Act-Description Approach to Approving and Funding Geoengineering Research III. Engineering Life Chapter 11: Sensitivity Enhancement: The Ethics of Testing Cognitive Enhancement on Non-Human Research Subjects Chapter 12: The Capacities! Interests! and Organization of Artifactual Organisms Chapter 13: How to Evolve a Good of Your Own: The Biological Interests of Instant Organisms Conclusion: Lessons for the Future ...

Texte du rabat

This book consists of thirteen chapters that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering, human enhancement, sex selection, genetic modification, and synthetic biology.

Contenu

Acknowledgments Contributor Biographies Introduction I. Engineering Humans Chapter 1: Sex Selection and the Value-Ladenness of the Procreative Liberty Framework Chapter 2: The Ethics of Embryo Selection Chapter 3: Assessing Efficacy of "Neuroenhancing" Drugs: Normative Problems in Empirical Controversies Chapter 4: Engineering for Virtue? Toward Holistic Moral Enhancement Chapter 5: Radical Enhancement and What' Wrong with It Chapter 6: Human Engineering and Climate Change II. Engineering the Environment Chapter 7: The Human Influence: Moral Responsibility for Novel Ecosystems Chapter 8: Why Scientists Should Get Out of Nature Conservation Chapter 9: What it Takes to Justify Geoengineering the Climate Chapter 10: Remediation vs. Steering: An Act-Description Approach to Approving and Funding Geoengineering Research III. Engineering Life Chapter 11: Sensitivity Enhancement: The Ethics of Testing Cognitive Enhancement on Non-Human Research Subjects Chapter 12: The Capacities, Interests, and Organization of Artifactual Organisms Chapter 13: How to Evolve a Good of Your Own: The Biological Interests of Instant Organisms Conclusion: Lessons for the Future