Christian Ethics and Biomedical Innovation

In Christian Ethics and Biomedical Innovation, Stephen Goundrey-Smith outlines a strategy for future adoption of human enhancement technologies which will ensure that such technologies are a common good, a strategy which is appropriate for a pluralistic society, yet consistent with Christian ethical principles. Drawing on the history of biomedical innovation to date in pharmaceutical medicine, he argues that technological capability alone is not enough, and that the responsible adoption of enhancement technologies will require active ethical deliberation and robust public policy discourse. Goundrey-Smith argues that biomedical technology, ethics, and public policy together form an essential triad for appropriate future enhancement technology adoption. This approach helps to ensure that biomedical technologies introduced will be common goods, and to reduce the risk of their instrumental use. The use of any technology is closely linked to its sociopolitical and cultural context and, drawing on Augustine’s The City of God, Goundrey-Smith presents a theological vision for good biomedical technology innovation in human society.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Good Life Chapter 1: Theological Foundations: Creation, Vocation and Co-Creation Chapter 2: Health Technology: Modern and Post-Modern Chapter 3: Public Bodies: The State and the Governance of Human Function Chapter 4: Consensus or Control: Biomedical Technology and Public Policy Chapter 5: Biomedical Technology, Ethics and Public Policy: Towards an Essential Triad Chapter 6: Fulfilling Life: A Tale of Two Cities

About the Author :
Stephen Goundrey-Smith is associate tutor in Christian ethics and doctrine at Cuddesdon Gloucester and Hereford, and a course facilitator with the Gateway Theology School.

Review :
Where Goundrey-Smith is most salient in this book is in advocating that Christians as citizens, and as participants in a long and thoughtful tradition, should contribute to public policy. This reviewer says a hearty “yes” to that summons, especially for such a formative set of challenges as we find in the title’s reference to “biomedical innovation.” Scientifically acute, theologically rich, ethically alert. This is a book for our era of biomedical advance. As an experienced pharmacist and theologian, Goundrey-Smith is well-placed to navigate for the reader some of the most challenging questions of human flourishing today. How can the future biomedical technologies be socially just? When is the status of the person undermined? What about cultural diversity and the responses of different societal groups? A fine example of practical wisdom in action, this book is informed about the science and the law. Its ethical deliberation is steady and sound. Highly relevant to students, teachers, clergy, and citizens of liberal democracies asking questions about biomedical innovation. The Reverend Stephen Goundrey-Smith is a delightful anomaly: a pharmacist with a strong healthcare background, an applied theologian, and an ordained minister in the Church of England. This text thoughtfully reflects on new and future biomedical technologies from the perspective of theological ethics and healthcare policy. Many treatises on healthcare ethics focus on the moral propriety of specific treatments for individual patients. Dr. Goundrey-Smith examines the larger question of how new healthcare technologies might support human flourishing in our world. He asks: “How can we all live well technologically in a complex, pluralistic society?” His surprising answers from Christian theology will give encouragement and hope to people of all faiths.