After the Genome: A Language for Our Biotechnological Future

by Michael J. Hyde (Editor), James A. Herrick (Editor)

Overview

Biotechnological advancements during the last half-century have forced humanity to come to grips with the possibility of a post-human future. The ever-evolving opinions about how society should anticipate this biotechnological frontier demand a language that will describe our new future and discuss its ethics. After the Genome brings together expert voices from the realms of ethics, rhetoric, religion, and science to help lead complex conversations about end-of-life care, the relationship between sin and medicine, and the protection of human rights in a post-human world.

With chapters on the past and future of the science-warfare narrative, the rhetoric of care and its effect on those suffering, black rhetoric and biotechnology, planning for the end of life, regenerative medicine, and more, After the Genome yields great insight into the human condition and moves us forward toward a genuinely humane approach to who we are and who we are becoming.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602586857
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Series:	Studies in Rhetoric & Religion , #14
Pages:	339
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael J. Hyde is University Distinguished Professor of Communication Ethics in the Department of Communication and is on the faculty of the Program for Bioethics, Health and Society in the School of Medicine, Wake Forest University. He is author of the award-winning Perfection: Coming to Terms with Being Human.

James A. Herrick is The Guy Vander Jagt Professor of Communication, Hope College and author of Scientific Mythologies: How Science and Science Fiction Forge New Religious Beliefs.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Editors' Introduction: A Language for Our Biotechnological Future: Rhetoric, Religion, Science, and Ethics (Michael J. Hyde and James A. Herrick)

1. Faith in Science: Professional and Public Discourse on Regenerative Medicine (Tristan Keys, Nancy M.P. King, and Anthony Atala)

2. From Arrowsmith to Atwood: How Did We Come to Disrespect Science? (Ronald M. Green)

3. The "Warfare" of Science and Religion and Science's Ethical Profile (Thomas M. Lessl)

4. Is There a Human Nature? An Argument against Modern Excarnation (Jean Bethke Elshtain)

5. Crossing Frontiers of Science: Trespassing into a Godless Space or Fulfilling Our Manifest Destiny? (Leah Ceccarelli)

6. The Angels and Devils of Representing Prozac (Tod Chambers)

7. "Leave Your Medicine Outside": Bioethics, Spirituality, and the Rhetoric of Appalachian Serpent Handlers (Bill J. Leonard)

8. Biovaluable Stories and a Narrative Ethics of Reconfigurable Bodies (Arthur W. Frank)

9. Blacks and the Language of Their Biotechnological Future (Ezra E. H. Griffith)

10. Bioethics, Economism, and the Rhetoric of Technological Innovation (Howard Brody)

11. Technologies of the Self at the End of Life: Pastoral Power and the Rhetoric of Advance Care Planning (Lisa Keränen)

12. Suffering and the Rhetoric of Care (Judy Z. Segal)

Notes

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

What People are Saying About This

Dale L. Sullivan

After the Genome explores the role of rhetoric and the varieties of language practices associated with the emerging world of biotechnology. The chapters raise important questions: When does care and therapy turn into enhancement? Does our enthusiasm for advancements turn a blind eye to ethical issues? After the Genome is a must-read for those interested in the rhetoric and ethics of medicine and for those monitoring the development of transhumanism as a normative narrative.

Russel Hirst

Hyde and Herrick guide us in thinking critically about the terms, rhetorical dimensions, and stakes involved in the extraordinarily important investigation, innovation, and debate surrounding our biotechnological future. They gather a diverse dozen sages of biotechnological wisdom, give them an incisive framework for discussion, and invite us to listen, reflect, and travel into the future we are forming.

Teresa L. Thompson

The power of language! This is an insightful volume that brings added understanding to Sartre's argument that 'words are loaded pistols.' After the Genome is an important contribution to the continuing debate on the impact of the biotechnology revolution.

Editorial Reviews

"Hyde and Herrick guide us in thinking critically about the terms, rhetorical dimensions, and stakes involved in the extraordinarily important investigation, innovation, and debate surrounding our biotechnological future. They gather a diverse dozen sages of biotechnological wisdom, give them an incisive framework for discussion, and invite us to listen, reflect, and travel into the future we are forming."
--Russel Hirst Director, Program in Technical Communication and Associate Professor of English, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

"After the Genome explores the role rhetoric and the varieties of language practices associated with the emerging world of biotechnology. The chapters raise important questions: When does care and therapy turn into enhancement? Does our enthusiasm for advancements turn a blind eye to ethical issues? After the Genome is a must-read for those interested in the rhetoric and ethics of medicine and for those monitoring the development of transhumanism as a normative narrative."
--Dale L. Sullivan, Professor of English, North Dakota State University

"The power of language! This is an insightful volume that brings added understanding to Sartre's argument that 'words are loaded pistols.' After the Genome is an important contribution to the continuing debate on the impact of the biotechnology revolution."
--Teresa L. Thompson, editor of Health Communication and Professor of Communication, University of Dayton

From the Publisher