دانلود کتاب Controlling Our Destinies: Historical, Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives on the Human Genome Project

Controlling Our Destinies presents the reflections of an international group of scholars from several humanistic disciplines on the historical origins, the philosophical content, the ethical issues, and the science-religion questions raised by the HGP. Contributors include John Beatty, Robert Bud, Arthur Caplan, Alice Domurat Dreger, Kevin Fitzgerald, Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Jean Gayon, Marguerite Hays, Lily Kay, Evelyn Fox Keller, Philip Kitcher, Timothy Lenoir, Richard McCormick, Ernan McMullin, Edward Manier, Timothy Murphy, John Opitz, Diane Paul, Arthur Peacocke, Martin Pernick, Hans Jörg Rheinberger, Kenneth Schaffner, Phillip R. Sloan, and John Staudenmaier.The Human Genome Project, an international scientific enterprise aimed at attaining a complete sequence and locator map of the entire human genetic structure by the year 2005, constitutes the largest single project ever undertaken in the life sciences. When completed, it will help pinpoint the genetic basis of virtually any human trait. It will also offer the possibility for medical interventions for many diseases and abnormalities related to genetic processes. In this timely collection, scholars from the fields of philosophy, history, ethics, theology, and the natural sciences explore the complex, far-reaching issues surrounding the Human Genome Project.Contributors discuss the historical background of the project, the issues behind the concepts of “code” and “genes,” the implicit reductionism in contemporary human genetics, the nagging issues surrounding potential new forms of positive “eugenics,” and the challenge the project presents for theological perspectives on human life.Because of its interdisciplinary approach and its efforts to engage the scientific community in an informed discussion with humanistic scholars, Controlling Our Destinies stands alone among the literature on the Human Genome Project. In addition to its contribution to scholarly inquiry, it will be useful for classroom discussions and is certain to stimulate further analyses by both humanists and scientists of the wider issues surrounding the Human Genome Project as it develops into the next century.