Rationality and the Genetic Challenge: Making People Better?

by Matti Häyry

Overview

Should we make people healthier, smarter, and longer-lived if genetic and medical advances enable us to do so? Matti Häyry asks this question in the context of genetic testing and selection, cloning and stem cell research, gene therapies and enhancements. The ethical questions explored include parental responsibility, the use of people as means, the role of hope and fear in risk assessment, and the dignity and meaning of life. Taking as a starting point the arguments presented by Jonathan Glover, John Harris, Ronald M. Green, Jürgen Habermas, Michael J. Sandel, and Leon R. Kass, who defend a particular normative view as the only rational or moral answer, Matti Häyry argues that many coherent rationalities and moralities exist in the field, and that to claim otherwise is mistaken.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521763363
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/11/2010
Series:	Cambridge Law, Medicine and Ethics , #11
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Matti Häyry is Professor of Bioethics and Philosophy of Law at the University of Manchester and Professorial Fellow at the University of Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland.

Table of Contents

1. Seven ways of making people better; 2. Rational approaches to the genetic challenge; 3. The best babies and parental responsibility; 4. Deaf embryos, morality, and the law; 5. Saviour siblings and treating people as a means; 6. Reproductive cloning and designing human beings; 7. Embryonic stem cells, vulnerability, and sanctity; 8. Gene therapies, hopes, and fears; 9. Considerable life extension and the meaning of life; 10. Taking the genetic challenge rationally.

Editorial Reviews

"This book thoughtfully presents work by major authors along the entire ideological spectrum....The coherent analysis and fair presentation of each thinker's case for and against genetic procedures, testing, and research show how notions of God, community, agency, and the self lead thinkers to different positions on genetic procedures....This important guide to work on genetics and ethics would be a helpful addition to collections in both bioethics and philosophy."
—Choice

From the Publisher