Whose View of Life?: Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells - Hardcover

Maienschein, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674011708 ISBN 13: 9780674011700

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Saving lives versus taking lives: These are the stark terms in which the public regards human embryo research--a battleground of extremes, a war between science and ethics. Such a simplistic dichotomy, encouraged by vociferous opponents of abortion and proponents of medical research, is precisely what Jane Maienschein seeks to counter with this book. Whose View of Life? brings the current debates into sharper focus by examining developments in stem cell research, cloning, and embryology in historical and philosophical context and by exploring legal, social, and ethical issues at the heart of what has become a political controversy.

Drawing on her experience as a researcher, teacher, and congressional fellow, Jane Maienschein provides historical and contemporary analysis to aid understanding of the scientific and social forces that got us where we are today. For example, she explains the long-established traditions behind conflicting views of how life begins--at conception or gradually, in the course of development. She prepares us to engage a major question of our day: How are we, as a 21st-century democratic society, to navigate a course that is at the same time respectful of the range of competing views of life, built on the strongest possible basis of scientific knowledge, and still able to respond to the momentous opportunities and challenges presented to us by modern biology? Maienschein's multidisciplinary perspective will provide a starting point for further attempts to answer this question.

About this title

About the Author

Jane Maienschein is Regents' Professor of Biology and Society and Director of the Center for Biology and Society at Arizona State University.

Reviews

At what point does an embryo or fetus become "human"? This question is at the core of today's battle over stem cell research, and that battle, Maienschein believes, is central to questions about the respective roles of science and morality in a democracy. Maienschein, director of the Center for Biology and Society at Arizona State University, puts the question of when life begins in historical and philosophical context. Thomas Aquinas and other early Christian theologians followed Aristotle's view that the fetus acquired first a vegetable soul, then an animal soul and, finally, a rational soul; abortion before the rational ensoulment was not murder. For centuries, the author explains, knowledge of human development in the womb was limited to observation of miscarried or aborted fetuses or to studying animal gestation. In the mid-19th century, the science of embryology came into being, and of course only in the late 20th century were scientists able to use imaging technology such as ultrasound to watch the development of the fetus. Maienschein then moves from history to current science and policy. A former congressional science adviser, she knows how government works-and fails to work-when it comes to setting policy on complex issues like cloning. She believes that George W. Bush's 2001 decision to limit stem cell research to lines that existed at that time is shortsighted, but she presents a balanced account of the controversy. This book should be required reading for anyone trying to understand the scientific and ethical issues that will dominate medicine in the next quarter century.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/pdf/MAIWHO_excerpt.pdf

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674011708
• ISBN 13: 9780674011700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368