Experiments in Democracy: Human Embryo Research and the Politics of Bioethics

Benjamin Hurlbut

Published by Columbia University Press 2017

Experiments in Democracy

Human Embryo Research and the Politics of Bioethics

Benjamin Hurlbut

https://doi.org/10.7312/hurl17954

Overview
Contents

About this book

Experiments in Democracy presents a history of American debates over human embryo research from the late 1960s to the present, exploring their crucial role in shaping norms, practices, and institutions of deliberation governing the ethical challenges of modern bioscience.

Author / Editor information

J. Benjamin Hurlbut is assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Reviews

Stephen Hilgartner, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University:
A well-documented and rigorously argued book that analyzes the modes of public reason that have guided U.S. debates about the human embryo. Hurlbut shows how prevailing modes of reasoning gave science a constitutional role in configuring the terms of ethical discourse. Experiments in Democracy offers a fascinating study of the role of scientific authority in deliberation about bioethical issues in the United States. Important for understanding bioethical debates and the contemporary politics of American democracy.

John H. Evans, University of California, San Diego:
In this book, Hurlbut takes the social analysis of public bioethics to the next and higher level. With a focus on how bioethics claims are justified in liberal democratic societies and with a keen interpretive eye on debates about human embryos, I found many of his analyses to be profoundly insightful. This book is a must read for anyone interested in bio-policy in general and public bioethics in particular.

Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School:
Where is American democracy made? In this path-breaking study of bioethics bodies, Hurlbut finds answers in an unexpected place. Tracing the contorted history of US debates on human embryo research, he brilliantly reveals the power accorded to scientific authority in establishing the preconditions, and even the right language, for valid moral reasoning. Full of original insights, and supported by a wealth of archival research, this is political theory remade with the tools of science and technology studies. It deserves a place beside John Rawls' seminal works on democratic deliberation and public reason.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction: The Politics of Experiment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. New Beginnings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
2. Producing Life, Conceiving Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
3. Representing Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
4. Cloning, Knowledge, and the Politics of Consensus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
5. Confusing Deliberation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
6. In the Laboratories of Democracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
7. Religion, Reason, and the Politics of Progress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
8. The Legacy of Experiment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 376

eBook

Published: March 6, 2017
ISBN: 9780231542913