The Bioethics of Regenerative Medicine (Philosophy and Medicine Book 102)

Regenerative medicine is rich with promethean promises. The use of human embryonic stem cells in research is justified by its advocates in terms of promises to cure a wide range of diseases and disabilities, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism to the results of heart attacks and spinal cord injuries. More broadly, there is the promethean allure of being able to redesign human biological nature in terms of the goals and concerns of humans. Needless to say, these allures and promises have provoked a wide range of not just moral but metaphysical reflections that reveal and reflect deep fault-lines in our cultures. The essays in this volume, directly and indirectly, present the points of controversy as they tease out the character of the moral issues that confront any attempt to develop the human regenerative technologies that might move us from a human to a post-human nature. Although one can appreciate the disputes as independently philosophical, they are surely also a function of the conflict between a Christian and a post-Christian culture, in that Christianity has from its beginning recognized a fundamental prohibition against the taking of early human life. Even the philosophical disputes that frame secular bioethics are often motivated and shaped by these background cultural conflicts. These essays display this circumstance in rich ways. Front Matter....Pages I-VIII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction: Regenerative Medicine at the Heart of the Culture Wars....Pages 3-10 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Regenerative Medicine after Humanism: Puzzles Regarding the use of Embryonic Stem Cells, Germ-Line Genetic Engineering, and the Immanent Pursuit of Human Flourishing....Pages 13-25 Genetic Manipulation and the Resurrection Body....Pages 27-45 Secular Humanist Bioethics and Regenerative Medicine....Pages 47-62 Radical Disagreements of Chinese Views on Fetal Life and Implications for Bioethics 1 ....Pages 63-73 Front Matter....Pages 75-75 Using and Misusing Embryos: The Ethical Debates....Pages 77-92 Trading Lives or Changing Human Nature: The Strange Dilemma of Embryo-Based Regenerative Medicine....Pages 93-106 Therapeutic Cloning, Respect for Human Embryo, and Symbolic Value....Pages 107-116 Front Matter....Pages 117-117 Medical Biotechnologies: Are There Effective Ethical Arguments for Policy Making?....Pages 119-134 Extending Human Life: To What End?....Pages 135-153 The Ethics of Regenerative Medicine: Beyond Humanism and Posthumanism....Pages 155-169 Virtue In Vitro: Virtue Ethics as an Alternative to Questions of Moral Status....Pages 171-179 Back Matter....Pages 181-186