Overview

Rights and Liberties in the Biotech Age is the first book reaching broadly into biotechnology that imbeds the issues into a rights framework for the social management of technology. The contributors to the volume comprise prominent university scientists, civil rights lawyers, and public interest activists who bring their perspectives to issues where science and civil liberties meet head on. This book explores the impact of new genetic technologies on how people define their 'personhood' and their basic civil liberties. It questions the thesis of 'scientism' where 'rights' must adapt and conform to technological changes. Instead, the authors explore the expansion of human rights in the face of new biomedical and bio-agricultural advances so that 'rights' and not 'technologies' are at the forefront of discussion.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sheldon Krimsky ,  Peter Shorett ,  Bill McKibben ,  Paul R. Billings
Publisher:   Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint:   Rowman & Littlefield
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.499kg
ISBN:  

9780742543409

ISBN 10:   0742543404
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   11 March 2005
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Introduction Part 3 Part I. Biodiversity Chapter 4 The Right to Biodiversity: A Concept Rooted in International Law and Understanding Chapter 4 Genetics, ""Natural Rights,"" and the Preservation of Biodiversity Part 6 Part II. Life Patents Chapter 7 Life Patents and Democratic Values Chapter 7 New Enclosures: Why Civil Society and Governments Should Look Beyond Life Patents Chapter 9 Life Patents Undermine the Exchange of Technology and Scientific Ideas Part 10 Part III. Genetically Engineered Food Chapter 11 Food Free of Genetic Engineering: More Than a Right Chapter 12 A Right to GE-Free Food: The Case of Maize Contamination Chapter 13 Ensuring the Public's Right to Safe Food Part 14 Part IV. Indigenous Peoples Chapter 14 Acts of Self-Determination and Self-Defense: Indigenous Peoples' Responses to Biocolonialism Chapter 16 Global Trade and Intellectual Property: Threats to Indigenous Resources Chapter 17 Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Resource Rights Part 18 Part V. Environmental Genotoxins Chapter 19 Arguing for a Right to Genetic Integrity Chapter 20 Refocusing Genomics Towards the Human Health Effects of Chemically Induced Mutations Chapter 21 ""Omics,"" Toxics, and the Public Interest Part 22 Part VI. Eugenics Chapter 23 Procreative Autonomy Versus Eugenic and Economic Interests of the State Chapter 24 A Disability Rights Approach to Eugenics Part 25 Part VII. Genetic Privacy Chapter 26 Genetic Privacy in the Health Care System Chapter 27 Biotechnology's Challenge to Individual Privacy Part 28 Part VIII. Genetic Discrimination Chapter 29 Beyond Genetic Anti-discrimination Legislation Chapter 30 Analyzing Genetic Discrimination in the Workplace Chapter 31 Disability Rights and Genetic Discrimination Part 32 Part IX. Exculpatory DNA Evidence Chapter 33 A Fundamental Right to Post-conviction DNA Testing Chapter 34 Forensic DNA: The Criminal Defendant's Right to an Independent Expert Part 35 Part X. Prenatal Genetic Modification Chapter 36 The Perils of Human Developmental Modification Chapter 37 Human Rights in a Post-human Future Chapter 38 Rights for Fetuses and Embryos? Chapter 39 Afterword: Focusing Ingenuity with Human Rights Chapter 40 Appendix: The Genetic Bill of Rights

Reviews

With chimerical experiments already underway that insert human brain cells into mice and pigs, and with bio-nanotechnology waiting impatiently in the wings, what we lack is a vigorous and spirited public forum in which to examine and engage such developments. No more. The idea of a Genetic Bill of Rights is the provocative jump-start to a serious discussion of policy and action options--a collection presented in lucid prose and grounded in clear thinking. -- Duster, Troy The authors represented in this edited compilation call for a genetic Bill of Rights, in a sensible, humane, and rational manner. An interesting read! Highly recommended. Choice This book is a wonderful contribution to a much needed assessment of the potential dangers awaiting us if we proceed in a reckless way. Nature Biotechnology a very thought-provoking book and [I] heartily recommend it. Journal Of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics This book is a wonderful blend of the radical and the conservative. It is radical, and persuasive, in proposing a genetic bill of rights. It is conservative, and no less persuasive, in warning us to keep the genetic developments under close scrutiny and control. If we may need some of the genetic developments we no less need to be protected from some of them as well. An impressive and needed book. -- Callahan, Daniel

This book is a wonderful blend of the radical and the conservative. It is radical, and persuasive, in proposing a genetic bill of rights. It is conservative, and no less persuasive, in warning us to keep the genetic developments under close scrutiny and control. If we may need some of the genetic developments we no less need to be protected from some of them as well. An impressive and needed book.--Callahan, Daniel

Author Information

Sheldon Krimsky is professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University and adjunct professor of family medicine and community health at the Tufts Medical School. Peter Shorett is director of programs at the Council for Responsible Genetics and writes in a variety of venues on the economics and politics of science.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions