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The Ethics of Genetic Control
Paul Ramsey
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“Because those who come after us may not be like us, or because those like us may not come after us, or because after a time there may be none to come after us, mankind must now set to work to insure that those who come after us will be more unlike us. In this there is at work the modern intellect’s penchant for species suicide.” With these words Paul Ramsey brings to a conclusion his provocative and surprising study of the problems we are encountering – and will encounter – as scientific advances make the genetic control of man a real possibility. Now, increased knowledge of chromosome structure has taken the alteration of the human race out of the realm of science fiction and placed it in the hands of laboratory scientists.
Ramsey sees this advance in science and technology as a mixed blessing. He examines the ramifications of genetic control, not only the now common measures of birth control and artificial insemination, but also the effect on the genetic pool of the increasing numbers of genetically poor individuals. His concern for humanistic values informs each argument as he tackles such issues as asexual reproduction of men, frozen semen banks, and the breeding of human beings for special purposes.
No less than the future of man as we know him hangs on these issues. One must pay particular attention to this book.
No less than the future of man as we know him hangs on these issues. One must pay particular attention to this book.
"In this important, thought provoking study the author examines the ramifications of genetic control and the possibilities it suggest for the future of man. discussed are the moral and religious implications of genetic control, clonality, and parenthood and the future of man by artificial donor insemination. . . . The author is deeply concerned about the 'modern intellect's penchant for suicide,' a theme he develops with frightening clarity. The book is well worth careful study."—M.D.
"This is an important book. . . . It is a courageous, informed, vigorous, lucid confronting of the moral crisis biotechnology is creating for mankind. . . . [Ramsey] reports with fairness (and humor) the present attitudes and speculations of scientists concerning man's rapidly increasing power to influence the biological future of his species. . . . This book is a landmark in ehtical discussion. It deals significantly with problems future generations will have, and this generation ought, to face."—Charles Hartshorne, Philosophy Forum
"At the outset let it be admitted that no comment which could be made in the space available to us would be adequate for this splendid little book. The only way this inadequacy can be surmounted is for each reader to procure his own copy."—Chicago Medicine
"Without [Ramsey's] work, Christian ethics in America would be considerably poorer both in the quantity and quality of its publication."—James M. Gustafson, Theological Studies
"A well-written, analytical, and informative philosophical work."—Daniel M. Singer, The Civil Liberties Review
ISBN: 9780300013740
Publication Date: August 1, 1970
Publication Date: August 1, 1970
184 pages, x
