Description
Book SynopsisGeno-technology is a technology unlike any other, with significant implications for life in the 21st century. It directly affects us at a deeply personal level, it poses a threat to the boundaries which conventionally define selfhood, it generates potentially novel risks and dangers, and it threatens the very basis of accepted understandings of culture and society. This unique, exploratory volume discusses the ethical, cultural and philosophical issues surrounding the search for the ''book of life'', focusing on the mapping of the human genome in Britain, the USA and Europe. It examines the impact of genetically modified crops, food and pharmacogenomics, along with the science and technology policy issues deriving from the human genome project. The authors investigate the potential risks and implications of the new genetics and conclude with a discussion of how nature may be reconfigured to underpin developments in health, commerce, state regulation and the law, both on a local and
Trade Review’A thorough, stimulating and well-researched account. Glasner and Rothman take the reader from the competitive science of the human genome project to the global strategies of the biotechnology business. Gene technology raises fundamental issues of governance, ethics and citizenship. Splicing Life? represents an essential guide to this fascinating field.’ Professor Alan Irwin, Brunel University, UK ’...the authors offer an interesting perspective on the important matter of human genetics research, technology and society.’ Nursing Ethics
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction; The hunt for the holy grail: compiling the book of life; Doing the human genome project; Managing genetic information; 'Frankenstein' foods, or the revenge of the genetically modified potatoes; Globalization and the transformation of nature; From commodification to commercialization; Rights or rituals: involving the people; New genetics, new millennium, new society?; Bibliography; Index.
