Altering Nature

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Introduction

   • B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, Gerald P. McKenny

   Pages 1-12

3. Spiritual and Religious Concepts of Nature

   • Aaron L. Mackler, Ebrahim Moosa, Allen Verhey, Anne Carolyn Klein, Kurt Peters

   Pages 13-62

4. Philosophical Approaches to Nature

   • John H. Zammito, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Helen Longino, Phillip R. Sloan

   Pages 63-136

5. Scientific and Medical Concepts of Nature in the Modern Period in Europe and North America

   • Laurence B. McCullough, John Caskey, Thomas R. Cole, Andrew Wear

   Pages 137-198

6. Ethical Challenges of Patenting “Nature”: Legal and Economic Accounts of Altered Nature as Property

   • Mary Anderlik Majumder, Margaret M. Byrne, Elias Bongmba, Leslie S. Rothenberg, Nancy Neveloff Dubler

   Pages 199-273

7. Technogenesis: Aesthetic Dimensions of Art and Biotechnology

   • Suzanne Anker, Susan Lindee, Edward A. Shanken, Dorothy Nelkin

   Pages 275-321

8. Back Matter

   Pages 323-332

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B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, and Gerald P. McKenny Nearly every week the general public is treated to an announcement of another actual or potential “breakthrough” in biotechnology. Headlines trumpet advances in assisted reproduction, current or prospective experiments in cloning, and devel- ments in regenerative medicine, stem cell technologies, and tissue engineering. Scientific and popular accounts explore the perils and the possibilities of enhancing human capacities by computer-based, biomolecular, or mechanical means through advances in artificial intelligence, genetics, and nanotechnology. Reports abound concerning ever more sophisticated genetic techniques being introduced into ag- culture and animal husbandry, as well as efforts to enhance and protect biodiversity. Given the pace of such developments, many insightful commentators have proclaimed the 21st century as the “biotechnology century. ” Despite a significant literature on the morality of these particular advances in biotechnology, deeper ethical analysis has often been lacking. Our preliminary review of that literature suggested that current discussions of normative issues in biotechnology have suffered from two major deficiencies. First, the discussions have been too often piecemeal in character, limited to after-the-fact analyses of particular issues that provoked the debate, and unconnected to larger concepts and themes. Second, a crucial missing element of those discussions has been the failure to reflect explicitly on the diverse disciplinary conceptions of nature and the natural that shape moral judgments about the legitimacy of specific forms of research and their applications.

• Norbert Elias
• altering nature
• biotechnology
• morality
• public policy
• reaction
• religion
• science

• Davidson College, USA

  B. Andrew Lustig

• Baylor College of Medicine, USA

  Baruch A. Brody

• University of Notre Dame, USA

  Gerald P. McKenny

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