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Title:
How to build a better human : an ethical blueprint / Gregory E. Pence.
Author:
Pence, Gregory E.
Publication Information:
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Pub., ©2012.
Call Number:
RA418.5 .M4 P46 2012
Abstract:
Medicine has recently discovered spectacular tools for human enhancement. Yet to date, it has failed to use them well, in part because of ethical objections. Meanwhile, covert attempts flourish to enhance with steroids, mind-enhancing drugs, and cosmetic surgery - all largely unstudied scientifically. The little success to date has been sporadic and financed privately. In How to Build a Better Human, prominent bioethicist Gregory E. Pence argues that people, if we are careful and ethical, can use genetics, biotechnology, and medicine to improve ourselves, and that we should publicly study what people are doing covertly. Pence believes that we need to transcend the two common frame stories of bioethics: bioconservative alarmism and uncritical enthusiasm, and that bioethics should become part of the solution - not the problem - in making better humans.--Publishers.
ISBN:
9781442217621
Physical Description:
x, 200 pages ; 23 cm
Contents:
What if your virtual life surpasses your real life? -- Lessons from the history of bioethics -- Expanding the mind -- Building better female bodies -- Building better male bodies -- Is it moral to feel better than well? -- Ways to build a longer life -- Is it wrong to live to one hundred? -- A better life with personalized genetics -- Building better kids: choosing embryos -- Eugenic abortions? -- Building better kids during gestation -- Building better kids: vaccinations -- Building better emerging minds: Adderall and Ritalin -- How not to think about genetic enhancement -- Five psychosocial objections to enhancing genes -- Cloning, primordial cells, enhancement -- Conclusions and six practical proposals.
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