Protecting humanity: Habermas and his critics on the ethics of emerging biotechnologies

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 211-222

  Häyry, Matti ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI   (Finland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BIOTECHNOLOGY; DECISION MAKING; ETHICAL THEORY; ETHICS; FREEDOM; HUMAN; HUMAN CHARACTERISTIC; INFORMED CONSENT; MORALITY; REVIEW; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR;

BIOTECHNOLOGY; CHOICE BEHAVIOR; ETHICAL THEORY; FREEDOM; HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS; HUMANS; INFORMED CONSENT; MORAL OBLIGATIONS; SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY;

EID: 84857828950     PISSN: 09631801     EISSN: 14692147     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963180111000715     Document Type: Review

References (24)

1. Habermas J. The Future of Human Nature. Rehg W, Pensky M, Beister H, trans. Cambridge: Polity Press; 2003.
2. His earlier work does, of course, inform his presentation in The Future of Human Nature.
3. I have said more about this connection in Häyry M. Rationality and the Genetic Challenge: Making People Better? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2010.
4. For an informative overview on the situation in the United States, see Baruch S, Kaufman D, Hudson KL. Genetic testing of embryos: Practices and perspectives of US in vitro fertilization clinics. Fertility and Sterility 2008;89:1053-8. (Pubitemid 351671741)
5. As pointed out by Green RM. Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 2007, at 57.
6. Wilmut I, Schnieke AE, McWhir J, Kind AJ, Campbell KHS. Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells. Nature 1997;385:810-3. (Pubitemid 27106068)
7. Thomson JA, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Shapiro SS, Waknitz MA, Swiergiel JJ, Marshall VS, et al. Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts. Science 1998;282:1145-7. (Pubitemid 28516247)
8. Other interpretations of Habermasian lines of argument from The Future of Human Nature (and beyond) can be found in Green RM.
9. Confronting rationality. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2011;20:216-27;
10. Árnason V. Nonconfrontational rationality or critical reasoning. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2011;20:228-37;
11. Gunson D. Are all rational moralities equivalent? Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2011;20:238-47;
12. Herissone-Kelly P. Habermas, human agency, and human genetic enhancement: The grown, the made, and responsibility for actions. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2012;21:200-210;
13. Gurnham D. Bioethics as science fiction: Making sense of Habermas's The Future of Human Nature. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2012;21:235-246;
14. Gunson D. What is the Habermasian perspective in bioethics? Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2012;21:188-199.
15. Jaspers K. The Origin and Goal of History (orig. 1949), Bullock M, trans. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 1953.
16. I have explained my views on the Kantian position in Häyry M. The tension between self-governance and absolute inner worth in Kant's moral philosophy. Journal of Medical Ethics 2005;31:645-7. (Pubitemid 41701035)
17. Sandel M. The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 2007, at 45-6, 85-7, 89-92.
18. Kass L. Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics. San Francisco: Encounter Books; 2002, at 19-22, 53, 155-61, 269-72.
19. Sandel M. The ethical implications of human cloning. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2005;48:241-7.
20. Glover J. Choosing Children: Genes, Disability, and Design. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 2006.
21. Harris J. Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2007, at 142.
22. Parfit D. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1984
23. See, e.g., Häyry M. A rational cure for pre-reproductive stress syndrome. Journal of Medical Ethics 2004;30:377-8. (Pubitemid 39157518)
24. Jonas H. The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (orig. 1979). Jonas H, Herr D, trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1984.