Research Catalog

Whose view of life? : embryos, cloning, and stem cells / Jane Maienschein.

Title
Whose view of life? : embryos, cloning, and stem cells / Jane Maienschein.
Author
Maienschein, Jane.
Publication
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance QP277 .M356 2003Off-site

Details

Description
xiii, 342 pages : illustrations; 22 cm
Summary
"Saving lives versus taking lives: the public regards human embryo research in these stark terms - as a battleground of extremes, a war between science and ethics. Precisely that simplistic dichotomy, propagated by vociferous opponents of abortion and proponents of medical research, is what Jane Maienschein seeks to counter with this book. Whose View of Life? brings the current debates into sharper focus by examining developments in stem cell research, cloning, and embryology in historical and philosophical context and by exploring the legal, social, and ethical issues at the heart of what has become a political controversy." "Drawing on her experience as a researcher, teacher, and congressional fellow, Maienschein's analysis serves as an aid to understanding the scientific and social forces that got us to where we are today. For example, she explains the long-established traditions behind conflicting views of how life begins - at conception or gradually, in the course of development. She prepares us to engage a major question of our day: How can we, as a twenty-first-century democratic society, negotiate a course that allows us to be at the same time respectful of the competing views of life, confident in the strongest possible basis in scientific knowledge, and still able to respond to the momentous opportunities and challenges presented to us by modern biology? Maienschien's multidisciplinary perspective will provide a starting point for further attempts to answer this question."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-328) and index.
Contents
1. From the Beginning -- 2. Interpreting Embryos, Understanding Life -- 3. Genetics, Embryology, and Cloning Frogs -- 4. Recombinant DNA, IVF, and Abortion Politics -- 5. From Genetics to Genomania -- 6. Facts and Fantasies of Cloning -- 7. Hopes and Hypes for Stem Cells.
ISBN
0674011708
LCCN
2003051084
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries