Rethinking Reprogenetics

Rethinking Reprogenetics
Author: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2017
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0190460202

Reprogenetic technologies have been embraced by advocates as tools that can create healthier, smarter, more admirable human beings. Bringing a contextualised, gender-attentive perspective to bear, Rethinking Reprogenetics reveals the flawed assumptions underpinning the arguments of the technologies' proponents and calls for a more critical assessment.

Rethinking Reprogenetics

Rethinking Reprogenetics
Author: Inmaculada de Melo-Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2016-10-03
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190460210

Reprogenetic technologies, which combine the power of reproductive techniques with the tools of genetic science and technology, promise prospective parents a remarkable degree of control to pick and choose the likely characteristics of their offspring. Not only can they select embryos with or without particular genetically-related diseases and disabilities but also choose embryos with non-disease related traits such as sex. Prominent authors such as Agar, Buchanan, DeGrazia, Green, Harris, Robertson, Savulescu, and Silver have flocked to the banner of reprogenetics. For them, increased reproductive choice and reduced suffering through the elimination of genetic disease and disability are just the first step. They advocate use of these technologies to create beings who enjoy longer and healthier lives, possess greater intellectual capacities, and are capable of more refined emotional experiences. Indeed, Harris and Savulescu in particular take reprogenetic technologies to be so valuable to human beings that they have insisted that their use is not only morally permissible but morally required. Rethinking Reprogenetics challenges this mainstream view with a contextualised, gender-attentive philosophical perspective. De Melo-Martín demonstrates that you do not have to be a Luddite, social conservative, or religious zealot to resist the siren song of reprogenetics. Pointing out the flawed nature of the arguments put forward by the technologies' proponents, Rethinking Reprogenetics reveals the problematic nature of the assumptions underpinning current evaluations of these technologies and offers a framework for a more critical and sceptical assessment.

Scarlet A

Scarlet A
Author: Katie Watson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190624876

Winner of the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language Although Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right in1973, it still bears stigma--a proverbial scarlet A. Millions of Americans have participated in or benefited from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion. Why is something so common, which has been legal so long, still a source of shame and secrecy? Why is it so regularly debated by politicians, and so seldom divulged from friend to friend? This book explores the personal stigma that prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way. In public discussion, both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the national debate polarized and contentious, and keeps our focus on the cases that occur the least. Professor Katie Watson focuses instead on the cases that happen the most, which she calls "ordinary abortion." Scarlet A gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains how our silence around private experience has distorted public opinion, and how including both ordinary abortion and abortion ethics could make our public exchanges more fruitful. In Scarlet A, Watson wisely and respectfully navigates one of the most divisive topics in contemporary life. This book explains the law of abortion, challenges the toxic politics that make it a public football and private secret, offers tools for more productive private exchanges, and leads the way to a more robust public discussion of abortion ethics. Scarlet A combines storytelling and statistics to bring the story of ordinary abortion out of the shadows, painting a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients and doctors currently think and act, and ultimately inviting readers to tell their own stories and draw their own conclusions. The paperback edition includes a new preface by the author addressing new cultural developments in abortion discourse and new legal threats to reproductive rights, and updated statistics throughout.

Prejudice

Prejudice
Author: Endre Begby
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-04-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192594087

Prejudiced beliefs may certainly seem like defective beliefs. But in what sense are they defective? Many will be false and harmful, but philosophers have further argued that prejudiced belief is defective also in the sense that it could only arise from distinctive kinds of epistemic irrationality: we could acquire or retain our prejudiced beliefs only by violating our epistemic responsibilities. It is also assumed that we are only morally responsible for the harms that prejudiced beliefs cause because, in forming these beliefs in the first place, we are violating our epistemic responsibilities. In Prejudice, Endre Begby argues that these common convictions are misguided. His discussion shows in detail that there are many epistemically justified pathways to prejudiced belief, and that it is a mistake to lean on the concept of epistemic responsibility to articulate our ethical responsibilities. Doing so unreasonably burdens victims of prejudice with having to show that their victimizers were in a position to know better. Accordingly, Begby provides an account of moral responsibility for harm which does not depend on finding grounds for epistemic blame. This view is supported by a number of examples and case studies at individual, collective, and institutional levels of decision making. Additionally, Begby develops a systematic platform for "non-ideal epistemology" which would apply to a wide range of other social and epistemic phenomena of current concern, such as fake news, conspiracy theories, science scepticism, and more.

Shaping Our Selves

Shaping Our Selves
Author: Erik Parens
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2015
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190211741

When bioethicists debate the ethics of using technologies like surgery and pharmacology to shape our selves, they are debating what it means for human beings to flourish. They are debating what makes animals like us truly happy, and whether the technologies at issue will bring us closer to or farther from such happiness. The positions that participants adopt in debates regarding such ancient and fundamental questions are often polarized, and cannot help but be deeply personal. It is no wonder that these debates are sometimes acrimonious. How can critics of and enthusiasts about technological self- transformation move forward in the midst of polarizing arguments? Based on his experience as a scholar at The Hastings Center, the oldest free-standing bioethics research institute in the world, Erik Parens proposes a habit of thinking, which he calls Binocular thinking lets us benefit from the insights that are visible from the stance of the enthusiast, who emphasizes that using technology to creatively transform our selves will make us happier, and to benefit from the insights that are visible from the stance of the critic, who emphasizes that learning to let ourselves be will make us happier. Because these debates ultimately entail critics and enthusiasts giving justifications for their own ways of being in the world, they entail the exchange of more than just impartial reasons. In the throes of our passion to make our case, we exaggerate our insights and all-too-often fall into the conceptual traps that our languages constantly set for us: Are human beings by nature creators or creatures? Are technologies morally neutral or value- laden? Is disability a medical or a social phenomenon? Indeed, are we free or determined? Parens explains how participating in these debates helped him articulate a habit of thinking, which is better at benefiting from the insights embedded in both poles of those binaries than was the habit of thinking he broug

Supersizing the Mind

Supersizing the Mind
Author: Andy Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2010-12-31
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199831041

When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's notes, he saw it as a "record" of Feynman's work. Feynman himself, however, insisted that the notes were not a record but the work itself. In Supersizing the Mind, Andy Clark argues that our thinking doesn't happen only in our heads but that "certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback, feed-forward and feed-around loops: loops that promiscuously criss-cross the boundaries of brain, body and world." The pen and paper of Feynman's thought are just such feedback loops, physical machinery that shape the flow of thought and enlarge the boundaries of mind. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer systems, and beyond, Supersizing the Mind offers both a tour of the emerging cognitive landscape and a sustained argument in favor of a conception of mind that is extended rather than "brain-bound." The importance of this new perspective is profound. If our minds themselves can include aspects of our social and physical environments, then the kinds of social and physical environments we create can reconfigure our minds and our capacity for thought and reason.

The Genetic Revolution and Human Rights

The Genetic Revolution and Human Rights
Author: Justine Burley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1999
Genre: Eugenics
ISBN: 9780192862013

Are eugenics practices morally defensible? Who should have access to g enetic information about particular individuals? What dangers for cult ural and racial diversity do developments in genetics pose? And how sh ould scientific research be regulated and by whom? These are some of t he questions addressed in this book, which comprises the 1998 Oxford A mnesty Lectures. The lecturers are all respected in their specific fie ld, including Hilary Putnam, Ian Wilmut (co-creator of 'Dolly' the she ep), and Jonathan Glover. Each lecture is proceeded by a discussion ar ticle written by prominent lawyers, scientists, and philosophers, and a foreword has been written by Richard Dawkins. Fascinating and though t-provoking, this book is essential reading for all those interested i n the future of genetics and humankind.

Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies

Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies
Author: Giovanni Stanghellini
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2004-09-09
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780198520894

How can we better understand and treat those suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illnesses? This important new book takes us into the world of those suffering from such disorders. Using self-descriptions, its emphasis is not on how mental health professional's view sufferers, but on how the patients themselves experience their disorder. Central to the book is the idea that schizophrenic persons live like disembodies spirits or deanimated bodies. As disembodies spirits, they feel like abstract entities that contemplate their own existence and the world from outside. As deanimated bodies, schizophrenic people feel deprived of the possibility of living personal experiences - perceptions, thoughts, emotions - as their own. A new volume in the International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series, this book will be of great interest to all those working with sufferers from such disorders - helping them to better understand their mental lives and providing important insights into how best to treat them.

Reconstructing Political Theory

Reconstructing Political Theory
Author: Mary Lyndon Shanley
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1997
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780271017259

In this volume, a companion to Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory (Penn State, 1991) edited by Mary Lyndon Shanley and Carole Pateman, leading feminist theorists rethink the traditional concepts of political theory and expand the range of problems and concerns regarded as central to the analysis of political life. Written by well-known scholars in philosophy, political science, sociology, and law, the book provides a rich interdisciplinary account of key issues in political thought. While some of the chapters discuss traditional concepts such as rights, power, freedom, and citizenship, others argue that topics less frequently discussed in political theory--such as the family, childhood, dependency, compassion and suffering--are just as significant for an understanding of political life. The Introduction shows how such diverse topics can be linked together and how feminist political theory can be elaborated systematically if it takes notions of independence and dependency, public and private, and power and empowerment as central to its agenda.