Controlling Our Destinies : Historical, Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives on the Human Genome Project

by Sloan, Phillip Reid

• ISBN13: 9780268008185
• ISBN10: 0268008183
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

The Human Genome Project, an international scientific enterprise aimed at attaining a complete sequence and locator map of the entire human genetic structure by the year 2005, constitutes the largest single project ever undertaken in the life sciences. When completed, it will help pinpoint the genetic causes of virtually any human genetic trait and will offer promising interventions for many diseases and abnormalities related to genetic processes. Now, in this timely collection, scholars from the fields of philosophy, history, ethics, theology, and the natural sciences explore the complex, far-reaching issues surrounding the Human Genome Project.

Contributors discuss the historical background of the project, the issues behind the concepts of "code" and "genes, " the implicit reductionism in contemporary human genetics, the nagging issues surrounding potential new forms of positive "eugenics, " and the challenge the project presents for theological perspectives on human life.

Because of its interdisciplinary approach and its efforts to engage the scientific

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(12)
Church and Society in Theoretical Perspective	13	(22)
The Chilean Church: A Historical Overview	35	(42)
The Peruvian Church: A Historical Overview	77	(34)
The Chilean Church and the Transition to Democracy	111	(48)
Chile's Consolidation of Democracy	159	(36)
The Church and the Transition to Civilian Rule in Peru	195	(22)
The Church and the Consolidation of Democracy in Peru	217	(52)
Conclusions	269	(24)
Appendix Tables 4--1 through 4--4	293	(6)
Notes	299	(48)
Bibliography	347	(12)
Index	359