Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit

Every day we hear news about medical or scientific breakthroughs and the complex ethical issues they raise. Feats that were never before possible such as cloning, the genetic modification of food, the mapping of a human chromosome, and the use of animal organs for human transplants have opened up a Pandora's box of ethical questions.

Technology is advancing at such rate that, as we enter the twenty-first century, the issue is not so much what we can do but rather what we will choose not to do. Is scientific progress inherently good and to the benefit of humankind, or is some territory best left uncharted by scientists?

According to Margaret Somerville, a leading international authority on medicine, ethics, and the law, society must set ethically acceptable limits on scientific advances. In this controversial, timely, and much-anticipated book, Professor Somerville sheds light on the urgent ethical and legal questions that vie for our attention:

Should we prohibit the use of human embryos as "living human tissue generators"?

Why, after we have prohibited euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide for nearly 2000 years, are we considering making them legal?

Should young women be able to sell their ova to finance their university educations?

Should parents have the right to circumcise their male babies?

Is xenotransplantation, the use of animal organs for human transplants, ethical?

Should scientists be allowed to tinker with the DNA in the human germ cell, the genes that are the very fabric of human life?

Are some things inherently wrong or even evil?

Somerville, a professional ethicist who has been called upon for advice on many life and death decisions, takes a very personal look at these tough questions and comes up with some even tougher answers. Along the way, she calls upon us to recognize the mysteries that lie at the heart of our lives and the metaphysical reality that gives meaning to life. The Ethical Canary is a major contribution to the debate about the hottest issues in ethics today, from one of the world's leading authorities.