Ethics and biotechnology

de Anthony Oakley Dyson, John Harris

The development of biotechnology has produced nothing short of a revolution in our capacity to manipulate living things from single plant cells to human nature itself, and even to manufacture brand new life forms. This power to shape and create forms of life has sometimes been described as the power to 'play God' and this book is about the ethics of 'playing God' in the field of biotechnology. It is a vast field ranging from plant breeding, agriculture, animal breeding and experimentation to human genetics and genetic engineering. The essays in this book well illustrate both the extent of the difficult issues raised by biotechnology and their fascination and importance. The full gamut of moral dilemmas posed by biotechnology is covered, from the smallest cells through animals to the engineering of human beings. The book reflects a multidisciplinary and an international approach with authors drawn from a number of European countries and from North America, and from disciplines which include philosophy, agricultural economics, medicine, political theory, biology and cell biology, embryology, social policy and theology. This book combines the work of outstanding scholars in all these disciplines and presents an up-to-date and penetrating survey of the ethical problems in this significant and fast developing field.