Biotechnology and the Human Good (Paperback, annotated edition)

In the past several decades biotechnologies have provided patients with a multitude of means to address illness and disability. Some biotechnologies, such as reproductive technologies and genetic enhancements, have created significant questions about the appropriateness of medical progress, and carry ethical and social implications for society. Should biotechnology move full steam ahead? Or should we show some degree of restraint? Amid the clamoring of conflicting claims is a profound absence of the answer to a fundamental question: the ultimate goal of biotechnology. What guidelines are available? How should we assess advances in clinical medicine? For those with Christian commitments, how does one reconcile such concepts as human dignity with biotechnical progress? Is the manipulation of embryos, for instance, really progress?This book, an interdisciplinary effort by several scholars writing with one voice, a voice deeply influenced by Christian theology, reviews recent developments in genetics, nanontechnology, cybernetics, neuroscience and pharmacology that not only may lead to new tools for healing, but that can also be used to enhance or augment normal human function. The authors also look at how competing worldviews--philosophical and religious--assess such developments. After laying out a Christian anthropology, or understanding of human nature, they conclude with a discussion of the proper use of biotechnology to pursue human flourishing. While fully supportive of medical progress to combat disease, which might include research on human subjects, they are suspicious of medical attempts to "improve" human nature.