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Biomedical subjects

E Parens

Publications and source records attributed to E Parens.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

The goodness of fragility: on the prospect of genetic technologies aimed at the enhancement of human capacities.

Beginning with the assumptions that genetic technology will make possible the enhancement of some significant human capacities and that our society will have self-evident reasons to pursue such enhancements, this essay suggests less evident reasons to proceed with extreme caution. The essay asks: Will we, in our attempts to enhance humans by reducing their subjection to chance and change, inadvertently impoverish them? It explores how technologies aimed at enhancement might affect the good that is our experience of some forms of the beautiful and the excellent, the good that is relationships of care, and the good that is diversity across the life span. In the end, it speculates about the fundamental philosophical difference that underlies the disagreement between those who would tend to embrace a project to enhance human capacities and those who would tend to criticize such a project.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Embryonic stem cells and the bigger reprogenetic picture.

In this country, public policy conversations about reproductive and genetic technologies have been conducted separately. This makes it difficult for policy makers and the public to notice the extent to which reproductive and genetic technologies are converging, and thus the extent to which we are approaching the possibility of reprogenetically shaping our children. Embryonic stem cell research offers a superb opportunity to identify that convergence, and thus to begin considering the creation of a public institution that would be devoted to contemplating the bigger picture of reprogenetically shaping children.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Taking behavioral genetics seriously.

Discussions of information produced by genetics research are often guided by two mistaken theoretical moves. Enthusiasts tell us not to worry because genetic tinkering can alter only our body, never our sour; worriers suggest that discovering links between our behaviour and our different bodies threatens important democratic ideas like moral equality. If we understand the body and soul to be inseparable and equality to be undiminished by difference, we can begin to take seriously the information produced by genetics research.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An immodest proposal.

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Antidepressive Agents↗