Brave New World

Embryonic stem cell research is at the leading edge of a series of moral hazards, according to the President. Even before Bush gave this address, in which he approved funding research on existing (but not new) embryonic stem cell lines, an Italian fertility doctor, Severino Antinori, announced that he will clone a human being within the year. While both these innovations -- stem cells and cloning -- promise enormous potential health benefits, from cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to the artificial growth of human organs, the procedures smack of Frankenstein to some observers, and a devaluation of human life to others.

Even while setting official policy, Bush laid out two sides of the debate and admitted there are good arguments on both sides of the issue. Here is a selection of books that reflect some of those arguments:

Body Bazaar
by Lori B. Andrews, Dorothy Nelkin
Body Bazaar is a detailed and slightly frightening look at both the current state and future implications of today's advances in the field of biotechnology. No longer the purview of science fiction, Andrews and Nelkin report on medical procedures such as organ farming, tissue marketing, genetic mapping, chromosomal manipulation, assisted reproduction, embryonic research, cloning and more. Careful to cite the ethical dilemmas inherent in all of the above, the authors also point out what these advances can mean to sick patients, speculating investors, and governments concerned with maintaining human rights in the face of medical and economic pressure.

Read an excerpt!

Human Trials
by Susan Quinn
When an otherwise healthy young woman in her 20s died after participating in a Johns Hopkins University test of an experimental asthma medication, all human testing at the prestigious university's hospital was shut down. This affected a tremendous number of studies supported with an equally enormous amount of federal money. And it underscores the risk and the reward of testing new medical procedures on human subjects, balancing present life and health with future advances. Human Trials investigates this world of experimentation by examining the scientists, corporations, investors, and patients who participate in the evolution of the new medical world.

Clones and Clones
by Martha C. Nussbaum, Cass R. Sunstein
There may be a scientist in Italy who brags he's going to clone a human being this year, but it hasn't happened yet. Still, that hasn't prevented a large number of writers to speculate on what cloning could mean and how it might come about. Clones and Clones is a reader that collects some of the finest writing on the topic. This includes the original research paper of Ian Wilmut, the doctor who created Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep (it took Wilmut 277 tries to get it right). Also collected are works by Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Andrea Dworkin, and others. The material ranges from scientific abstracts to cultural criticism to science fiction fantasy.

Decoding Darkness
by Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ann B. Parson
The motivation behind the newest research on stem cells is undoubtedly noble. Scientists are staring down some of the worst diseases that affect human beings -- including Alzheimer's, the debilitating neurological disease that afflicts so many older Americans, including former President Reagan. Decoding Darkness is a concentrated examination of this disease, which is so mysterious in its origins and terrifying in its manifestation. Whether a cure lies in stem cell research, no one can say. But anyone reading this book will realize that such research is desperately needed.

Biology as Ideology
by Richard C. Lewontin
In a debate like that over stem cell research or cloning, it is the fashion of many thinkers to defer to science. Surely the objective scientist can chart a proper course better than can pressure groups or the pandering politician. But as Richard Lewontin reveals in Biology as Ideology, much so-called "pure science" is shaped by social and political concerns. Lewontin debunks the idea that any rational inquiry is above ideological taint, whether that taint comes from innocent-but-biased assumptions or raw self-interest. Lewontin makes his case most strongly against ideas existing in the current project to map the human genome.

A Personal Matter
by Kenzaburo Oe
For those of us familiar with the tenor of the abortion debate in America ("It's a woman's right to choose," "No, it isn't," "Yes, it is," etc.), it may come as a surprise that a brilliant and challenging novel can be written on the issue. And yet A Personal Matter, by Japan's Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe, deals chiefly with the maturity and morality of his character Bird, who must face the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy. In fact, the issue is further clouded because this baby is known to be imperfect. Oe, who himself is father to a disabled child, asks essential, nurturing questions in this book about what it is that we the living owe the unborn.

Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
A visionary novel when it was first published in 1932, Aldous Huxley's dystopic novel depicts a totalitarian state based on principles of rationality and scientific efficiency, in which humans are grown in laboratories and families are outlawed. Any frictions that might exist in this controlled society are smoothed over with readily available mood-altering drugs. Happiness and productivity are the only goals of this perfect world, a world where something fundamental has gone wrong. Nearly 70 years ago, Huxley seemed to anticipate our world of today, which is on the brink of making choices about how humans are conceived and how human bodies can be used.