Embryo politics : ethics and policy in Atlantic democracies / Thomas Banchoff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Banchoff, Thomas F., 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human embryo--Research--Moral and ethical aspects--United States.

Human embryo.

Human embryo--Research--Moral and ethical aspects--Europe.

Human embryo--Research--Political aspects--United States.

Human embryo--Research--Political aspects--Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 294 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca [N.Y.] : Cornell University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since the first fertilization of a human egg in the laboratory in 1968, scientific and technological breakthroughs have raised ethical dilemmas and generated policy controversies on both sides of the Atlantic. Embryo, stem cell, and cloning research have provoked impassioned political debate about their religious, moral, legal, and practical implications. National governments make rules that govern the creation, destruction, and use of embryos in the laboratory-but they do so in profoundly different ways.In Embryo Politics, Thomas Banchoff provides a comprehensive overview of political struggles aboutembryo research during four decades in four countries-the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Banchoff's book, the first of its kind, demonstrates the impact of particular national histories and institutions on very different patterns of national governance. Over time, he argues, partisan debate and religious-secular polarization have come to overshadow ethical reflection and political deliberation on the moral status of the embryo and the promise of biomedical research. Only by recovering a robust and public ethical debate will we be able to govern revolutionary life-science technologies effectively and responsibly into the future.

Contents:

The emergence of ethical controversy

First embryo research regimes

The ethics of embryonic stem cell research

Stem cell and cloning politics.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780801461071

0801461073

9780801460593

080146059X

OCLC:

732959288