Description
This collection, edited by William Kristol and Eric Cohen, chronicles the start of the great national debate over stem cell research. It looks back, beginning with selections from Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis, who first imagined the possibility of a Brave New World many decades ago. It looks forward, moving on to the current debate over human cloning and stem cells, including articles, essays, speeches and testimony from genetic enthusiasts and critics, scientists and moralists, politicians and scholars. An original introduction by Kristol and Cohen maps out the major disagreements, the questions ahead, and their own view that America's unchecked faith in technological progress needs a radical reconsideration.
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This reader includes classic writings (e.g. George Orwell) as well as more recent essays and congressional testimony about human cloning, genetic engineering, stem cell research, biotechnology, human nature, and American democracy. Editors Kristol ( The weekly standard ) and Cohen (the Ethics and Public Policy Center) write that they "have sought to include the best arguments on all sides, though of course many important articles and essays had to be left out. And taken as a whole, we have aimed to be fair, though we will candidly say that our intention is to awaken readers to the moral challenges of the Brave New World, so that we might set moral limits on biological `progress' before it is too late." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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