Search results for ""Author Josephine Johnston""

International uproar followed the recent announcement of the birth of twin girls whose genomes had been edited with a breakthrough DNA editing-technology. This technology, called clustered regularly interspaced short palindrome repeats or CRISPR-Cas9, can alter any DNA, including DNA in embryos, meaning that changes can be passed to the offspring of the person that embryo becomes. Should we use gene editing technologies to change ourselves, our children, and future generations to come? The potential uses of CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene editing technologies are unprecedented in human history. By using these technologies, we eradicate certain dreadful diseases. Altering human DNA, however, raises enormously difficult questions. Some of these questions are about safety: Can these technologies be deployed without posing an unreasonable risk of physical harm to current and future generations? Can all physical risks be adequately assessed, and responsibly managed? But gene editing technologies also raise other moral questions, which touch on deeply held, personal, cultural, and societal values: Might such technologies redefine what it means to be healthy, or normal, or cherished? Might they undermine relationships between parents and children, or exacerbate the gap between the haves and have-nots? The broadest form of this second kind of question is the focus of this book: What might gene editing--and related technologies--mean for human flourishing? In the new essays collected here, an interdisciplinary group of scholars asks age--old questions about the nature and well-being of humans in the context of a revolutionary new biotechnology--one that has the potential to change the genetic make-up of both existing people and future generations. Welcoming readers who study related issues and those not yet familiar with the formal study of bioethics, the authors of these essays open up a conversation about the ethics of gene editing. It is through this conversation that citizens can influence laws and the distribution of funding for science and medicine, that professional leaders can shape understanding and use of gene editing and related technologies by scientists, patients, and practitioners, and that individuals can make decisions about their own lives and the lives of their families.

Read more less

News of financial entanglements among biomedical companies and researchers has increasingly called into question the worth and integrity of medical studies, nearly three-fifths of which are funded by industry. This volume assesses the ethical, quantitative, and qualitative questions posed by the current financing of biomedical research. The ten essays collected here reflect the wide range of opinions about perceived financial conflicts of interest in medical studies. The opening section provides an overview of the issue, describing the origins of, and concerns raised by, dubious financial arrangements; explaining how certain common situations intensify problematic funding structures; weighing the risks and benefits of commercialized research funding; and detailing the nature, extent, and consequences of the present relationship among academe, government, and industry in the health sciences. The second section compares how the idea of conflicts of interest differs in biomedical research, legal work, and journalism. It includes a challenging look at the term itself and an argument for managed financial incentives. The final section describes and analyzes the existing regulatory regime, poses questions and directions for future self and external regulation, and provides perspectives from a third-party research company. This considered, balanced discussion will interest scholars of bioethics, public health, and health policy.

Read more less