Altering Nature: Volume II: Religion, Biotechnology, and Public Policy (Philosophy and Medicine, 98)

The introduction situates specific religious and policy discussions of four broad areas of biotechnology within the context of the broader conversation on concepts of nature set forth in Volume One. Our introductory overview reviews key aspects of recent religious and ethical discussions of four areas: biotechnology and assisted reproduction, biotechnology and genetic enhancement, biotechnology and human-machine incorporation, and biotechnology and biodiversity. It also draws links between those various discussions in light of a number of theological themes and casuistical emphases. The introduction also reviews the four policy chapters, each linked to the conceptual chapter written on the same area of biotechnology, and suggests the ways that policy choices in these areas may be illumined by more focused attention on religious perspectives. B Andrew Lustig Baruch A Brody and Gerald P McKenny In this second volume of the Altering Nature project we situate specific religious and policy discussions of four broad areas of biotechnology within the context of our interdisciplinary research on concepts of nature and the natural in the first volume Altering Nature Concepts of Nature and the Natural in Biotechnology Debates In the first volume we invited five groups of scholars to explore the diverse conc tions of nature and the natural that shape moral judgments about human alterations of nature as especially exemplified by recent developments in biotechnology A careful reading of such developments reveals that assessments of them whether positive or negative are often informed by different conceptual interpretations of nature and the natural with differing implications for judgments about the app priateness of particular alterations of nature These varying interpretations of nature and the natural often result from the distinctive perspectives that characterize va ous scholarly disciplines Therefore in an effort to explore the variety of meanings that attend discussions of the concepts of nature and the natural the contributors to the first volume of Altering Nature addressed those concepts from five different disciplinary vantages A first group of scholars analyzed a range of religious and spiritual perspectives on concepts of nature and the natural Their research highlighted the thematic h torical and methodological touchstones in those traditions that shape their persp tives on nature The introduction situates specific religious and policy discussions of four broad areas of biotechnology within the context of the broader conversation on concepts of nature set forth in Volume One Our introductory overview reviews key aspects of recent religious and ethical discussions of four areas biotechnology and assisted reproduction biotechnology and genetic enhancement biotechnology This volume analyzes concepts of nature and a the naturala (TM) in discussions of biotechnology with four broad concerns in mind. First, it surveys the recent history of biotechnology debates and identifies characteristic reactions and approaches to new biotechnological developments that invoke appeals to nature. Second, it analyzes concepts of nature and a the naturala (TM) as they are invoked and interpreted in five characteristic modes of discourse; viz., spirituality and religion, philosophy, science and medicine, law and economics, and aesthetics. Third, it identifies a core cluster of on V. 1. Concepts Of 'nature' And 'the Natural' In Biotechnology Debates -- V. 2. Religion, Biotechnology, And Public Policy. Edited By B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, Gerald P. Mckenny. Includes Bibliographic References And Indexes.