About the Book
This book looks at both the past and the future of the debate over whether there are moral limits to scientific progress and what life will look like in the genetic age.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Future is Now
Part 2 Part I: Brave New World?
Chapter 3 Section A: Dream or Nightmare?
Chapter 4 Selections from Brave New World (1932)
Chapter 5 Social Biology and Population Improvement, Nature (1939)
Chapter 6 Section B: Making Life in the Laboratory
Chapter 7 Unpredictable Variety Still Rules Human Reproduction, Washington Post (1967)
Chapter 8 Genetic Tampering, Washington Post (1967)
Chapter 9 Experimental Genetics and Human Evolution, American Naturalist (1966)
Chapter 10 Selections from Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control (1970)
Chapter 11 Moving Toward the Clonal Man Atlantic Monthly (1971)
Chapter 12 Making Babies: The New Biology and the Old Morality The Public Interest (1972)
Chapter 13 "Making Babies" Revisited Public Interest (1979)
Chapter 14 Section C: The New Genetics and the American Future
Chapter 15 Two Cheers (or Maybe Just One) for Progress, The Wall Street Journal (1999)
Chapter 16 A Milestone in the Conquest of Nature, The Wall Street Journal (2000),
Chapter 17 Designing Our Descendants, First Things (2001)
Chapter 18 Politics in a Brave New World, The Public Interest (2001)
Part 19 Part II: Politics in the Genetic Age-Cloning, Stem Cells, and Beyond
Part 20 Section A: The Cloning/Stem Cell Debate, 1997-2000
Chapter 21 Testimony, U.S. Senate (March 1997)
Chapter 22 Testimony, U.S. Senate (March 1997)
Chapter 23 The Wisdom of Repugnance, The New Republic (June 1997)
Chapter 24 Cloning Human Beings: Report and Recommendations (June 1997)
Chapter 25 Testimony, U. S. Senate (June 1997)
Chapter 26 Second Thoughts on Cloning, New York Times (Dec. 1997)
Chapter 27 Of Headless Mice…And Men, Time Magazine (Jan. 1998)
Chapter 28 Who's Afraid of Human Cloning, Washington Post (Feb. 1998)
Chapter 29 Congressional Record, U.S. Senate (Feb. 1998)
Chapter 30 Congressional Record, U.S. Senate (Feb. 1998)
Chapter 31 Liberalism and Cloning, The Weekly Standard (Oct. 1998)
Chapter 32 Testimony, U.S. Senate (Dec. 1998)
Chapter 33 Testimony, U.S. Senate (Dec. 1998)
Chapter 34 Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research (Sept. 1999)
Chapter 35 Petri Dish Politics, Reason Magazine (Dec. 1999)
Chapter 36 Reason, Faith and Stem Cells, The Washington Post (Aug. 2000)
Chapter 37 Pig-Man Cometh, The Weekly Standard (Oct. 2000)
Chapter 38 A Crucial Election for Medical Research, New York Times (Nov. 2000)
Part 39 Section B: The Cloning/Stem Cell Debate - 2001
Chapter 40 The Point of a Ban, Hastings Center (Jan/Feb)
Chapter 41 Why Pro-Lifers Are Missing the Point, Time Magazine (Feb)
Chapter 42 The Politics of Stem Cells, The Weekly Standard (March)
Chapter 43 Testimony, U.S. House of Representatives (March)
Chapter 44 Against Human Cloning, The Weekly Standard (April)
Chapter 45 Testimony, U.S. Senate (May)
Chapter 46 Preventing a Brave New World, The New Republic (May)
Chapter 47 Separating Good Biotech From the Bad, The Wall Street Journal (May)
Chapter 48 The Politics of Cloning, Los Angeles Times (June)
Chapter 49 Letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson (June)
Chapter 50 For a Total Ban on Human Cloning, The Weekly Standard (June)
Chapter 51 Cell Out, Slate (July)
Chapter 52 Of Missile Defense and Stem Cells, The Weekly Standard (July)
Chapter 53 Testimony, U.S. Senate (July)
Chapter 54 Testimony, U.S. Senate (July)
Chapter 55 Testimony, U.S. Senate (July)
Chapter 56 A Nightmare of a Bill, The Washington Post (July)
Chapter 57 Stem-Cell Research: Don't Destroy Human Life
Chapter 58 Congressional Record, U.S. House of Representatives (July)
Chapter 59 Congressional Record, U.S. House of Representatives (July)
Chapter 60 Cloning Stem Cells, and Beyond, The Weekly Standard (Aug.)
Chapter 61 Address to the Nation (Aug.)
Chapter 62 Stem Cell Science and the Preservation of Life, New York Times (Aug.)
Chapter 63 Stem Cells: Bush's Broken Promise, Washington Post (Aug.),
Chapter 64 Stem Cell Decision: A Missouri Compromise, Los Angeles Times (Aug.)
Part 65 Part III: Mortality and the American Character
Chapter 66 Why Not Immortality? First Things (May 2001)
Chapter 67 Biodemocracy in America The Public Interest (Winter 2002)
Chapter 68 Of Terrorism and Cloning
About the Author :
George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2007. She is currently the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and the Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. She resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Adam Wolfson holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago and has previously served as editor of The Public Interest and consulting editor of Commentary. He is assistant chairman for programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities and visiting assistant professor of government in the Claremont McKenna College's Washington, D.C., Program.
Review :
This compilation will attract not only those struggling to understand the ethical debate over bioscience but also those trying to predict the political fortunes of the Republican right.
For those with archival interest to the history of this debate, there may be no more useful primer to conservative arguments over human nature and the limits of science.
Kristol and Cohen have edited a reader, The Future Is Now, that aims to present fairly many sides of a complex issue. In the main they have succeeded.
Morally serious people will be grateful to have this collection on hand as America faces the challenge nicely stated in the editor's closing reflections.
An interesting read, The Future Is Now should alert us all to the need for scientific literacy among a populace that will elect tomorrow's decision makers.
