The Ethical Canary Science, Society and the Human Spirit

by Somerville, Margaret

• ISBN13: 9780140295160
• ISBN10: 014029516X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-25
• Publisher: Penguin Global

Summary

Every day we hear news about medical or scientific breakthroughs and the complex ethical issues they raise. Feats that were never before possible including cloning, genetically modifying food, mapping human chromosomes and using animal organs for human transplants have opened up a Pandora's box of ethical questions. Technology is advancing at such a rate that the issue is not so much what we can do but rather whether we will do it. According to Margaret Somerville, a leading international authority on medicine, ethics and the law, society must set ethically acceptable limits on scientific advances. In this controversial, timely and much-anticipated book, Professor Somerville sheds light on the urgent ethical and legal questions that vie for our attention. Along the way, she calls upon us to recognize the mysteries that lie at the heart of our lives and the metaphysical reality that gives meaning to life.

Table of Contents

The Ethical Canary Preface to the Paperback Edition
Prologue
1. Searching for Ethics in a Secular Society
2. Making and Un-Making Babies: The Ethics of Human Reproduction
3. Immortalizing Our Genetic Selves: The Ethics of Human Cloning
4. Crossing the Animal-Human Divide (The Ethics of Xenotransplantation)
5. Dealing with Death: The Ethics of Euthanasia
6. Terminating Life Support without Consent: The Ethics of Withdrawing Treatment
7. Pushing Parents to the Sidelines: The Ethics of Imposing Treatment on Seriously Ill Children
8. Altering Baby Boys' Bodies: The Ethics of Infant Male Circumcision
9. Denying Health Care to Individuals: The Ethics of Access
10. Structuring Healthcare Systems: The Ethics of Allocation
11. Creating an Ethics Toolbox: What Does "Doing Ethics" Require?
Epilogue
Sources
Acknowledgments
Index