The Case against Perfection : Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering / Michael J. Sandel.
Sandel, Michael J., author.
2022
HV1431 .R48 2002eb
Available Online

Linked e-resources

Linked Resource Online Access

Details

Title The Case against Perfection : Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering / Michael J. Sandel.
Author Sandel, Michael J., author.
ISBN 9780674043060
DOI https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674043060
Published Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2022]
Copyright ©2007
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource (176 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers 10.4159/9780674043060 doi
Call Number HV1431 .R48 2002eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 174/.957
Summary 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.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)
In HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
Linked Resources Online Access
Record Appears in Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments
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

Browse Subjects

Show more subjects...

Statistics

from
to
Export