Bioethics and the New Embryology: Springboards for Debate

This book is amazing. Seldom does one encounter a text that can adequately explain the complexities of our natural world in plain and approachable language. Gilbert and his two students accomplish this in Bioethics and the new embryology. Especially appreciated is the integration of religious and philosophical analysis that supplements and deepens one's understanding of the subject. Overall, great writing on a relevant topic.

For years I have taught a course entitled Biopolitics and for as many years I have found myself cobbling together pictures, creating my own schematics using Canvas, and otherwise playing the bricoleur because of the lack of a book such as Bioethics and the New Embryology to provide the key biological information. Now I have the book I have wished for. I can't thank Scott Gilbert and his coauthors enough for having taken on a task that needed doing. The political, moral, and economic questions that swirl around embryos, stem cells, and growing knowledge of the human genome aren't resolved by reading this book, but the discussions of those questions will be markedly improved if this book is widely read.

What good advice from Thomas Huxley! These days everyone seems to have an opinion about everything, especially about stem cells and Darwinian evolution. In light of advances in our technology that allow manipulation of human reproduction and the end of life, we as a Society are reexamining our ethical positions on the subjects of life and death. Too often our judgments about the ethics of reproduction, medical treatments and dying are made without knowledge of the basic biology underlying these big issues- information that might help us decide if we have the right to alter the course of human development. Nor do we know the philosophical and religious arguments on both sides of these issues. Scott Gilbert and colleagues have done us all an enormous service by providing the information needed to make judgments that are based on knowledge and not just emotions. Bioethics and the New Embryology was designed to be springboards for discussion. In seven units with two chapters each, these authors discuss a series of questions, including when does human life begin?, Should new reproductive technologies be regulated? Should we choose the sex of our children? Should we allow human cloning? Should we use stem cells as spare body parts? Should we modify the genes of our offspring? Should animals be used for research and under what circumstances? For each question, there is a chapter discussing the biology involved, and this is followed with another chapter discussing the political, religious or ethical issues in a balanced fashion. No answers to the dilemmas are provided, only the means to arrive at them. Highly readable - written at the level of an entering college freshman - and full of marvelous photographs - some previously found only in medical school text-books. The reader can learn with little effort about such things as what a human fetus looks like during each week of development, how twins are formed, how animals are cloned, the techniques used for sex selection and assisted reproduction, where stem cells come from and why they do what they can do, what is normal, what is gene therapy and so much more. You will also learn about what philosophers and leaders of all religions believed in the past and what they believe now about the very problems we are concerned with today, The book is a first of its kind - a highly accurate informative little book to be used as a basis for informed discussion of these important issues. And it is written by one of the leading developmental biologists, who has a background in religion as well; Gilbert is the author of the most popular college text book about developmental biology, so the information is accurate, as well as entertaining. Gilbert intended the book to be used to" introduce first year college students to critical thinking about contemporary issues, for ethics units taught within Science Departments and for adult education seminars...". I sent copies to my children, to my sister who wi

At long last, here is a biology text that raises challenging questions of ethical legal and social implications in a serious and meaningful way. All too often, these vitally important issues are used to decorate an undergraduate textbook with sidebars trying to impart "relevance" to "the material" of the course. This text places all of its content in the social and historical context necessary for the understanding both of the science and of its place in the larger scheme of things. I know of no other book that does the job better. The book is clearly and attractively designed, and well illustrated in color (and occasionally B & W). But the most amazing feature is the price. Finally, here is a book that students will not resent buying, and can affordably be added as a supplemental textbook to any course. (Although there is probably enough here to cover at least half of a semester in an introductory course for non-majors.) If you are selecting books for your course, be sure to take a look at this one! If you are no longer a student, but want to learn about the new world of stem cells, clones, genomes, reproductive technologies, and what such things mean in our daily lives, BUY THIS BOOK!