Altering Nature

About this book

The two volumes of Altering Nature consider the complex ways that concepts of `nature' and `the natural' are understood and the relevance of those understandings to discussions of biotechnology.

Volume One, Concepts of `Nature' and `The Natural' in Biotechnology Debates, offers nuanced accounts of the ways that nature is invoked and interpreted, both descriptively and prescriptively, by different disciplines, including perspectives from spirituality and religion, philosophy, science and medicine, law and economics, and aesthetics.

In the context of that broad discussion, Volume Two, Religion, Biotechnology, and Public Policy, reviews recent religious and ethical analyses of four specific areas of biotechnology: assisted reproduction, genetic therapy and enhancement, human-machine incorporation, and biodiversity. It identifies and explores the richer normative themes that inform particular debates and suggests ways that policy choices in biotechnology may be illuminated by devoting greater attention to religious perspectives.

Contents

Altering Nature I: Introduction.Concepts of Nature and The Natural in Biotechnology Debates, B. Andrew Lustig and Baruch Brody. 1. Spiritual and religious concepts of nature; 2. Philosophical Approaches to Nature; 3. Scientific and Medical Concepts of Nature in the Modern Period in Europe and North America; 4. Ethical Challenges of Patenting Nature: Legal and Economic Accounts of Altered Nature as Property; 5. Aesthetic and Representational Concepts of Nature

Altering Nature II: Introduction.B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, Gerald P. McKenny; 1: Compatible Contradictions: Religion and the Naturalization of Assisted Reproduction; 2: Religion, Conceptions of Nature, and Assisted Reproductive Technology Policy; 3: Religious Traditions and Genetic Enhancement; 4: How Bioethics Can Inform Policy Decisions About Genetic Enhancement 5: The Machine in the Body: Ethical and Religious Issues in the Bodily Incorporation of Mechanical Devices; 6: Altering Nature: Medical Devices Policy and the Humanities: Examining Implantable Cardiac Devices; 7: Biodiversity and Biotechnology; 8: Swimming Upstream: Regulating Genetically Modified Salmon; Notes on Contributors; Index

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