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B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, and Gerald P. McKenny Nearly
every week the general public is treated to an announcement of
another actual or potential "breakthrough" in biotechnology.
Headlines trumpet advances in assisted reproduction, current or
prospective experiments in cloning, and devel- ments in
regenerative medicine, stem cell technologies, and tissue
engineering. Scientific and popular accounts explore the perils and
the possibilities of enhancing human capacities by computer-based,
biomolecular, or mechanical means through advances in artificial
intelligence, genetics, and nanotechnology. Reports abound
concerning ever more sophisticated genetic techniques being
introduced into ag- culture and animal husbandry, as well as
efforts to enhance and protect biodiversity. Given the pace of such
developments, many insightful commentators have proclaimed the 21st
century as the "biotechnology century. " Despite a significant
literature on the morality of these particular advances in
biotechnology, deeper ethical analysis has often been lacking. Our
preliminary review of that literature suggested that current
discussions of normative issues in biotechnology have suffered from
two major deficiencies. First, the discussions have been too often
piecemeal in character, limited to after-the-fact analyses of
particular issues that provoked the debate, and unconnected to
larger concepts and themes. Second, a crucial missing element of
those discussions has been the failure to reflect explicitly on the
diverse disciplinary conceptions of nature and the natural that
shape moral judgments about the legitimacy of specific forms of
research and their applications.
B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, and Gerald P. McKenny In this
second volume of the "Altering Nature" project, we situate specific
religious and policy discussions of four broad areas of
biotechnology within the context of our interdisciplinary research
on concepts of nature and the natural in the first volume (Altering
Nature, Concepts of Nature and the Natural in Biotechnology
Debates). In the first volume, we invited five groups of scholars
to explore the diverse conc- tions of nature and the natural that
shape moral judgments about human alterations of nature, as
especially exemplified by recent developments in biotechnology. A
careful reading of such developments reveals that assessments of
them-whether positive or negative-are often informed by different
conceptual interpretations of nature and the natural, with
differing implications for judgments about the app- priateness of
particular alterations of nature. These varying interpretations of
nature and the natural often result from the distinctive
perspectives that characterize va- ous scholarly disciplines.
Therefore, in an effort to explore the variety of meanings that
attend discussions of the concepts of nature and the natural, the
contributors to the first volume of Altering Nature addressed those
concepts from five different disciplinary vantages. A first group
of scholars analyzed a range of religious and spiritual
perspectives on concepts of nature and the natural. Their research
highlighted the thematic, h- torical, and methodological
touchstones in those traditions that shape their persp- tives on
nature.
B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, and Gerald P. McKenny In this
second volume of the "Altering Nature" project, we situate specific
religious and policy discussions of four broad areas of
biotechnology within the context of our interdisciplinary research
on concepts of nature and the natural in the first volume (Altering
Nature, Concepts of Nature and the Natural in Biotechnology
Debates). In the first volume, we invited five groups of scholars
to explore the diverse conc- tions of nature and the natural that
shape moral judgments about human alterations of nature, as
especially exemplified by recent developments in biotechnology. A
careful reading of such developments reveals that assessments of
them-whether positive or negative-are often informed by different
conceptual interpretations of nature and the natural, with
differing implications for judgments about the app- priateness of
particular alterations of nature. These varying interpretations of
nature and the natural often result from the distinctive
perspectives that characterize va- ous scholarly disciplines.
Therefore, in an effort to explore the variety of meanings that
attend discussions of the concepts of nature and the natural, the
contributors to the first volume of Altering Nature addressed those
concepts from five different disciplinary vantages. A first group
of scholars analyzed a range of religious and spiritual
perspectives on concepts of nature and the natural. Their research
highlighted the thematic, h- torical, and methodological
touchstones in those traditions that shape their persp- tives on
nature.
B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, and Gerald P. McKenny Nearly
every week the general public is treated to an announcement of
another actual or potential "breakthrough" in biotechnology.
Headlines trumpet advances in assisted reproduction, current or
prospective experiments in cloning, and devel- ments in
regenerative medicine, stem cell technologies, and tissue
engineering. Scientific and popular accounts explore the perils and
the possibilities of enhancing human capacities by computer-based,
biomolecular, or mechanical means through advances in artificial
intelligence, genetics, and nanotechnology. Reports abound
concerning ever more sophisticated genetic techniques being
introduced into ag- culture and animal husbandry, as well as
efforts to enhance and protect biodiversity. Given the pace of such
developments, many insightful commentators have proclaimed the 21st
century as the "biotechnology century. " Despite a significant
literature on the morality of these particular advances in
biotechnology, deeper ethical analysis has often been lacking. Our
preliminary review of that literature suggested that current
discussions of normative issues in biotechnology have suffered from
two major deficiencies. First, the discussions have been too often
piecemeal in character, limited to after-the-fact analyses of
particular issues that provoked the debate, and unconnected to
larger concepts and themes. Second, a crucial missing element of
those discussions has been the failure to reflect explicitly on the
diverse disciplinary conceptions of nature and the natural that
shape moral judgments about the legitimacy of specific forms of
research and their applications.
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