GenEthics

Artificial insemination, 'test tube babies' and genetic testing all offer ways of helping people who suffer from infertility or genetic diseases. This book gives a challenging and rigorous analysis of the ongoing ethical controversies, but does not assume any previous knowledge of philosophy.

---

This book was first published in 1994. Ever since Plato, human reproduction has been a subject for philosophical speculation. The last two decades are no exception. Quite the contrary: recent technological revolutions within the field of human reproduction has provoked among philosophers reflection and ongoing controversies. In his pioneering book, Kurt Bayertz provides a comprehensive analysis of the philosophical deep structure behind the ongoing controversies. He strikingly relocates some of the central ethical issues concerned with human reproduction and its technological control. The central aim of this book, however, is not to solve the many ethical problems within the field, but to understand the nature of these problems. Such an understanding remains impossible until we realise that technology does not reduce to external power. Control over human reproduction is perhaps the most impressive example of technology as a part of ourselves. We have to face the conclusion that, by changing technology, we change ourselves.