Author: Richard Heinberg
Publisher: B Jain Pub.
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 265
ISBN/UPC (if available): 81702110228
Description
Is it fair for wealthy people to buy genes to assure their offspring god looks, health and high intelligence?
Are tomatoes, genomically spliced to include fish genes because of their anti-aging properties, acceptable food for vegetarians?
If biotech can cure cystic fibrosis and other diseases and alleviate world hunger, wouldn’t it be morally wrong not to pursue it?
With penetrating common sense, Richard Heinberg tackles some of the thorniest ethical questions we face. Fascinating examples form plant and animal research; interviews with scientific, political and religious leaders; and a clear overview of the helpful and harmful effects of biotech on our food supply, reproductive choices, and environment give thinking readers ample evidence for making up their minds.
We anticipate lively discussion of the ethical issues Heinberg raises. Readers with very little scientific background, we think, will be awakened to how greatly knowledge has expanded. Yet, as Heinberg so well describes, knowledge-especially technical knowledge-sis not wisdom. And it is wisdom he advocates.
-From the foreword by Dorion Sagan and Lynn Margulis
Is Cloning a Wonderful Opportunity for the Human Race?
Or a Dangerous Attempt to Play God?
When British scientists cloned the sheep Dolly in 1997, the world changed forever and the moral stakes rose to an all-time high. Scientists line up against theologians, ecologists and conservations. Devates rage at dinner tables and at the water cooler. Cloning promises to sure disease, cultivate organs for surgical transplants and end infertility. But might biotechnology triggers a biological catastrophe? Are we putting our very souls at risk?
An extremely intelligent, thoughtful and balanced view of a controversial subject-biotechnology. This an important book and there’s a good chance hat it will define public dialogue and shape public policies for years to come. If you want to be informed rather than merely opinionated, by all means read this excellent book.
-John Robbins, author of diet for New America and Reclaiming our Health
A powerful, well-researched good read, clearly presenting the issues of genetic engineering. My own reaction to this problem for many years has also been that we need to find the Buddha within before we attempt to clone, lest we end up as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
-Edgar Mitchell, founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Apollo 14 Astronaut
Never have the ethical stakes in a debate surrounding the introduction of a new technology been higher: Richard Heinberg asks all the right questions and helps the reader make sense of this complex but vital subject. Essential reading!
-Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
RICHARD HEINBERG is a journalist, essayist and lecturer. His work has appeared in the Utne Reader; Brain/ Mind Bullentin, Science of Mind Magazine, the Sun, Magical Blend, and many other publications. He has lectured on national television and radio in this country and on speaking engagements around the world. Heinberg publishers an alternative monthly broadside, Museletter; which was nominated in 1995 by the Utne reader for an Alternative Press Award in Emerging Issues and was names one of Utne’s Best Alternative Newsletters.
Contents
FOREWORD
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
The Spiral Ladder
Machines and Organisms: A Spiritual Perspective
Biotech Basics
Patents and Profits
Exploring Our Intuitive Responses to Biotech: Yuk or Wow?
The DNA Cult
A Different Path
Cloning the Buddha?
APPENDIX
NOTES
RESOURCES
INDEX