Life Science Ethics

The first section of Life Science Ethics introduces students to essential background concepts in moral theory -- ethics, the relationship of religion to ethics, how to assess ethical arguments, and a method used to reason about ethical theories. The next section demonstrates the relevance of ethical reasoning to six topics:
-- The relative moral standing of ecosystems, nonhuman animals, and future human generations
-- The moral justifiability of genetic engineering as a whole and the patenting of life forms in particular
-- Our duty to aid the hungry
-- Our obligation to animals used to produce fiber, food, and knowledge
-- Public policies to adjudicate conflicting rights claims among urban consumers, environmentalists, and farmers over the use of water and land
-- The virtues traditionally associated with family farmsPart three provides a dozen case studies and study questions to raise relevant ethical issues and draw readers into concrete discussions of complex moral questions.

Gary L. Comstock is Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, author of Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case against Agricultural Biotechnology (Kluwer, 2000), and Editor-in-chief of On the Human at the National Humanities Center.