Clone Being: Exploring the Psychological and Social Dimensions - Hardcover

Levick, Stephen E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0742529894 ISBN 13: 9780742529892

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003

Synopsis

Most people think the risks of reproductive cloning are so high as to make trying to clone a person immoral. Even if the medical risks could be reduced greatly, many believe a clone would still risk great psychological harm, and that the practice of reproductive cloning would also be detrimental to society. Others dismiss these concerns as speculative, and point to the possible good they believe it could do. But we need not wait for the first clone to be born to systematically consider the possible psychological and social ramifications of cloning.

Marshalling psychological and sociological theory and research, and drawing upon extensive clinical experiences as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Levick explores the various dimensions of cloning. Clone Being attempts to anticipate possible consequences for a clone, his or her "parents" and family, and society. Psychotherapy case material enlivens and illustrates the book and the reader is helped to identify "clone-like" aspects of his or her own experience and mental life, and of contemporary life. Through this process, the book comes to important conclusions about human nature, including the crucial roles of intimacy, sex, and sexuality for society. The clinical and scientifically grounded insights of this book should help inform the reader's ethical judgments and attitudes about cloning people.

About this title

From the Author:

Anyone willing to dig in, and learn new things should be able to read and understand this book. I wrote it to try to inform the ethical debate on cloning in new ways. It is meant to be both a scholarly and highly accessible book on a serious subject of broad human interest.

The book strives to help the reader understand reproductive cloning on a variety of levels -- intellectual, personal and emotional; and from a number of perspectives -- that of the clone, the person wishing to clone, the clone's family, and society. In the process, aside from what the reader comes to learn about cloning, I hope he or she will come away with a better understanding of him or herself and others.

From the Inside Flap:

"In the brilliant and intriguing book, Levick anticipates the psychological and social consequences of human reproductive cloning. Containing a wealth of information drawn from the author's experience and the psychiatric literature, this book is a welcome antidote to the hype and armchair speculation prompted by the prospect of cloning. Facts about identical twins, parent-child resemblance, and what happens when parents seek to replace dead child are fascinating in their own right, and provide useful analogies for the implications of human cloning." -- Ruth Macklin, Dr. Shoshanah Trachtenberg Frackman Faculty Scholar in Biomedical Ethics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

"...may well stand as the blueprint for the kind of genuinely psychologically informed reasoning upon which we will need to depend when cloning becomes a reality. This is an extremely intriguing and important book." -- Rogers Smith, Christopher H. Browne Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania

"Stephen Levick has written a uniquely thought-provoking treatment of the possible psychological and social consequences of reproductive cloning. Regardless of one's stance on this current controversy, his book will be a most fascinating and informative journey." -- Nancy Segal, Author of "Entwined Lives: Twins and what they tell us about human behavior;" Professor of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton

"... a full, eloquent, knowing, and deeply humane account of human cloning and its potential for good or ill on the human psyche." -- Jason W. Brown, Clinical Professor of Neurology, New York University Medical Center

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0742529894
• ISBN 13: 9780742529892
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336