Bioethics

by Jones, W. Gareth

• ISBN13: 9781920691790
• ISBN10: 1920691790
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-30
• Publisher: Atf Pr

Summary

Are scientists playing God? Are the artificial reproductive technologies helpful or hazardous? Should human embryos ever be used for research? How do we cope with people who are mentally ill? Is someone in a persistent vegetative state still alive? How should we treat those with dementia? Questions like these are all around us. They affect ordinary people, who often feel ill equipped to respond to them. No one seems to have adequate answers. Do Christians have answers? In this book, aimed at the general reader, Professor Gareth Jones considers a range of topics ranging all the way from early embryos through to old age. While he concentrates on bioethical issues in the West, he is deeply concerned at the huge disparity in mortality and quality of life in different parts of the world. He also asks how Christians can best contribute to the discussion of bioethical issues within pluralist societies. Professor Jones is never afraid to face unpalatable issues head-on, and provide ways forward. He invites people to enter debates that we avoid at our peril. The book deals from beginning of life, early life, middle life and end of life issues.

Author Biography

Professor Gareth Jones is Professor of Anatomy and Structural Biology at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He also serves as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) at that university

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Confronting the Big Questions
What Should We Do?	p. 3
Case studies	p. 4
Learning to make decisions	p. 8
Delving into ethics	p. 10
Underlying ethical principles	p. 14
The Role of Christian Theology	p. 17
Theological themes and human value	p. 17
Interpreting the theological themes	p. 25
Where does the Bible enter the picture?	p. 27
Revisiting ethical guidelines	p. 28
Is Medicine Leading Us Astray?	p. 31
The power of medicine	p. 31
Should we welcome increasing control over ourselves?	p. 33
Is medicine playing God?	p. 37
Playing God revisited	p. 41
Back to nature?	p. 43
Designing and Enhancing Human Beings	p. 46
The design trap	p. 46
Striving for immortality	p. 49
From therapy to enhancement	p. 50
Thinking again about enhancement	p. 54
Beginning of Life Issues
The Importance of Human Embryos	p. 59
Embryonic development	p. 61
Ways of looking at embryos (and foetuses)	p. 62
What are we to make of the natural wastage of embryos?	p. 66
Embryos today	p. 68
Embryos in context	p. 73
Reproduction: Prevention of Fertilisation	p. 75
Children as gifts of God	p. 75
Significance of fertilisation	p. 78
Contraception: from natural to artificial	p. 79
Range of Christian perspectives	p. 83
Weighing up contraceptive usage	p. 86
Reproduction: Artificial Reproductive Technologies	p. 89
Various forms of artificial fertilisation	p. 90
Gamete donation	p. 101
Embryo donation	p. 104
Reproduction: Beyond IVF	p. 106
Prenatal diagnosis	p. 107
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)	p. 110
The dilemma of selection	p. 114
Maternal-foetal conflict	p. 117
Reproductive Cloning	p. 121
Cloning of people like you and me	p. 122
Why clone?	p. 125
Should Christians be concerned?	p. 126
Looking again at cloning	p. 128
Stem Cells and Therapeutic Cloning	p. 135
Embryonic stem cells	p. 136
What makes stem cells so interesting?	p. 139
Do Christians have special insights into these topics?	p. 141
Stem cell regulations: theological input	p. 144
Genetics and the Blueprint of Life	p. 148
A continuum from the known to the unknown	p. 149
Genetic control and the person	p. 152
Does genetic manipulation stand in opposition to God's purposes?	p. 157
Is Armageddon inevitable?	p. 159
The First Month of Life	p. 161
A world of disparity and inequity	p. 161
Premature babies	p. 163
Rescuing newborns	p. 169
Confronting uneasy truths	p. 173
Coping with Life
Dilemmas of the Mind	p. 177
A geography of mental illness	p. 178
Case studies	p. 181
Thinking again about mental disease	p. 184
Mental illness and society	p. 187
When Organs Wear Out	p. 189
Why bother about dead bodies?	p. 191
Organ transplantation: scientific and clinical developments	p. 193
When should organs be taken from dead bodies?	p. 194
Organ transplantation in infants: using anencephalics	p. 197
Organs from living donors	p. 198
When is a Person Really Dead?	p. 202
Knowing when someone has died	p. 203
Persistent vegetative state (PVS)	p. 204
Ethical issues in PVS	p. 208
What contribution can Christians make?	p. 211
Care of Older People	p. 213
Confronting mortality	p. 214
Making choices	p. 216
From ageing to dementia	p. 220
I am not the man I was	p. 223
Living in Society	p. 226
From neglect to excess	p. 226
Coping with differences	p. 228
Ethical and theological interfaces	p. 232
Preventing the future?	p. 236
Glossary	p. 241
Further Reading	p. 249
Index	p. 253
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