Designer Biology

John Basl is assistant professor of philosophy at Northeastern University and cofounder of Philosophy TV (http://philostv.com).Ronald L. Sandler is associate professor of philosophy at Northeastern University, and also director of Northeastern’s Ethics Institute. He is author of The Ethics of Species, Character and Environment, and Nanotechnology: The Social and Ethical Issues, as well as coeditor of Environmental Justice and Environmentalism and Environmental Virtue Ethics.

This work, edited by Basl and Sandler (both, philosophy, Northeastern Univ.), is a compilation of papers based on a workshop held at Northeastern. The book contains 13 chapters divided in three parts: 'Engineering Humans,' 'Engineering the Environment,' and 'Engineering Life.' Twelve of the 13 chapters are from the workshop; the last chapter does a very nice job of providing conclusions and generalizations based on the other chapters. Contributors address topics such as the consideration of moral responsibility for using engineering methods to select the sex of human embryos; using molecular techniques to create 'designer' children; using implants and/or drugs to affect moral behavior; altering the Earth's atmosphere to combat climate change; and artificially designing and developing technologically created organisms. Each chapter stands alone and would pique a reader's interest in moral issues associated with new and future use of biological engineering to manipulate biological entities. The chapters are provocative and are valuable as a basis for considerations of the ethics of human intervention into natural systems. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsContributor BiographiesIntroductionI. Engineering HumansChapter 1: Sex Selection and the Value-Ladenness of the Procreative Liberty Framework Chapter 2: The Ethics of Embryo SelectionChapter 3: Assessing Efficacy of “Neuroenhancing” Drugs: Normative Problems in Empirical Controversies Chapter 4: Engineering for Virtue? Toward Holistic Moral EnhancementChapter 5: Radical Enhancement and What’ Wrong with ItChapter 6: Human Engineering and Climate ChangeII. Engineering the EnvironmentChapter 7: The Human Influence: Moral Responsibility for Novel EcosystemsChapter 8: Why Scientists Should Get Out of Nature ConservationChapter 9: What it Takes to Justify Geoengineering the ClimateChapter 10: Remediation vs. Steering: An Act-Description Approach to Approving and Funding Geoengineering ResearchIII. Engineering LifeChapter 11: Sensitivity Enhancement: The Ethics of Testing Cognitive Enhancement on Non-Human Research SubjectsChapter 12: The Capacities, Interests, and Or