Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Editorial Foreword / Matti Häyry -- Acknowledgements / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- Introduction / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- Methodological and Theoretical Issues / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- What the Fox Would Have Said, Had He Been a Hedgehog: On the Methodology and Normative Approach of John Harris's Wonderwoman and Superman / Matti Häyry -- Does it Matter when We Begin to Exist? / Ingmar Persson -- Can We Do Wrong by Bringing Children into Being? / Sirkku Kristiina Hellsten -- Impersonal Morality: A Defense / Torbjörn Tännsjö -- Principles of Health Care Ethics: Solution or Problem? / Søren Holm -- On the Morality of Avoiding Information / Juha Räikkä -- Practical Issues / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- Genome Analysis and Responsibility for Health / John Harris -- Genetic Information and Care / Ingmar Pörn -- The Genetic Dissection of Complex Traits / Angus Clarke -- Genetic Health and Genetic Disease / Rogeer Hoedemaekers and Henk ten Have -- Patenting Non-Human and Human Life / Juhani Pietarinen and Veikko Launis -- Hubris and Hybrids in the Myth of Frankenstein / Christoph Rehmann-Sutter -- Translating the Human Genome Project into Social Policy: A Model for Participatory Democracy / Gregory L. Fowler and Michael J. Garland -- Notes on Contributors / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- Index / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- VIBS / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä -- Titles Published / Veikko Launis , Juhani Pietarinen , and Juha Räikkä.

Most public discussion has focused on those effects of genetic research that are considered in some way unwanted or unpleasant. For example, there has been much debate concerning the risks and the ethical appropriateness of genetic screening, gene therapy, and agricultural applications based on genetic techniques. It often claimed that genetic research may cause new problems such as genetic discrimination, stigmatization, environmental risks, or mistreatment of animals. Genes and Morality: New Essays adopts a critical attitude toward genetic research, on both a theoretical and a practical level. It presents some of the most important problems in the ethics of genetic engineering, including the questions of genetic health and disease, genetic testing, responsibility for health, patenting non-human and human life, and problems related to the disclosure of genetic information. The aim of the book is to focus on real ethical and conceptual issues. Consider, for instance, the concept of genetic disease. As one of the contributors, Ingmar Pörn, writes, fear of genetic disease, or anxiety, is not itself a disease any more than fear of becoming unemployed is a disease. Alleviating such emotions is not a medical task to be discharged by drug therapy. The book also examines the philosophical foundations of these issues by discussing the most influential bioethical theories of today, including utilitarianism and principlism.

Description based on print version record.