Mutating Concepts, Evolving Disciplines: Genetics, Medicine, and Society

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Lisa S. Parker, Rachel A. Ankeny

      Pages 1-7

3. Historical Reflections on Core Concepts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. The Classical Gene: Its Nature and its Legacy

      • Garland E. Allen

      Pages 11-41

   3. Dissolving Dominance

      • Douglas Allchin

      Pages 43-61

   4. Flies, Genes, and Brains: Oskar Vogt, Nikolai Timoféeff-Ressovsky, and the Origin of the Concepts of Penetrance and Expressivity

      • Manfred D. Laubichler, Sahotra Sarkar

      Pages 63-85

   5. From Reproductive Responsibility to Reproductive Autonomy

      • Diane Paul

      Pages 87-105

4. Perspectives from the Philosophy of Science

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

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   2. Understanding Genetic Causation and its Implications for Ethical Issues Concerning Medical Genetics

      • Fred Gifford

      Pages 109-125

   3. Reduction Reconceptualized: Cystic Fibrosis as a Paradigm Case for Molecular Medicine

      • Rachel A. Ankeny

      Pages 127-141

   4. Scylla and Charybdis: Adaptationism, Reductionism, and the Fallacy of Equating Race with Disease

      • Joseph L. Graves Jr.

      Pages 143-164

   5. Behavior as Affliction: Common Frameworks of Behavior Genetics and its Rivals

      • Helen E. Longino

      Pages 165-187

5. Explorations of Ethical, Social, and Legal Consequences

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 189-189

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   2. The Morality of Prenatal Testing and Selective Abortion: Clarifying the Expressivist Objection

      • Licia Carlson

      Pages 191-213

   3. Meliorism at the Millennium: Positive Molecular Eugenics and the Promise of Progress Without Excess

      • Anita Silvers

      Pages 215-234

   4. Personal Identity and the Moral Appraisal of Prenatal Therapy

      • David Wasserman

      Pages 235-264

   5. Conceptual and Moral Problems of Genetic and Non-Genetic Preventive Interventions

      • Paul K. J. Han

      Pages 265-286

   6. Unraveling the Codes: The Dialectic Between Knowledge of the Moral Person and Knowledge of the Genetic Person in Criminal Law

      • John H. Robinson, Roberta M. Berry

      Pages 287-317

6. Back Matter

   Pages 319-339

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Advances in genetics, such as the Human Genome Project's successful mapping of the human genome and the discovery of ever more sites of disease-related mutations, invite re-examination of basic concepts underlying our fundamental social practices and institutions. Having children, assigning responsibility, identifying causes, using social and scientific resources to improve human well-being, among other concepts, will never be the same. Our concepts of moral and legal responsibility, cause and effect, disease prevention, health, disability, enhancement, personal identity, and reproductive autonomy and responsibility are all subtly changing in response to developments in genetics. Biology, law, medicine, and other disciplines are also evolving in response to mutating concepts in genetics itself-for example, dominance, causation, behavior, gene expression, and gene. The selections in this volume employ philosophical and historical perspectives to shed light on classic social, ethical, and philosophical issues raised with renewed urgency against the backdrop of the mapping of the human genome.

• Ethical Issues
• Eugenics
• Moral
• Philosophy of Science
• autonomy
• gene expression
• genetics
• health
• reduction
• science

• University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

  Lisa S. Parker

• Unit for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney, Australia

  Rachel A. Ankeny

Policies and ethics