Biopolitics, Mythic Science, and Progressive Values
By Marcy Darnovsky,
Progress in Bioethics
| 01. 29. 2010
From The MIT Press announcement:
Progress in Bioethics: Science, Policy, and Politics
Edited by Jonathan D. Moreno and Sam Berger
Foreword by Harold Shapiro
Table of Contents and Sample Chapters
Bioethics has become increasingly politicized over the past decade. Conservative voices dominated the debate at first, but the recent resurgence of progressivism and the application of its fundamental values (social justice, critical optimism, practical problem solving) to bioethical issues have helped correct this ideological imbalance. Progress in Bioethics is the first book to debate the meaning of progressive bioethics and to offer perspectives on the topic both from bioethicists who consider themselves progressive and from bioethicists who do not. It aims to begin a dialogue and to provide a foothold for readers interested in understanding the field.
The chapter authors--leading scholars in the field--discuss the meaning of progressive bioethics, the rise of conservative bioethics, the progressive stance toward biotechnology, the interplay of progressive bioethics and religion, and progressive approaches to such specific policy issues as bioethics commissions, stem cell research, and health-care reform.
The arrival of a new administration...
Related Articles
By Marcia Langton, National Indigenous Times | 09.22.2026
Pauline Hanson speaking about Aboriginal people on a white Christian podcast last year said "they're the most primitive race on Earth and we're supposed to be holding them up and saying what they've achieved? They've achieved nothing." She resurrected the...
By Erik Adams, Sundance | 09.08.2026
The scariest movie playing at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival isn’t about cursed audio recordings or a killer demon disguised as your true love; rather it’s a 110-minute essay film about how a handful of guys obsessed with numbers and...
By Gaia Ghirardi, Arno Van Hootegem & K. Paige Harden , Nature Human Behaviour | 09.21.2026
Embryo screening for behavioural traits is no longer speculative. If you want to become a parent in the USA today, you can pay to use pre-implantation polygenic testing (PGT-P) of in vitro fertilization (IVF)-created embryos. PGT-P promises to optimize offspring...
By Ann E. Marimow and J. David Goodman, The New York Times | 09.22.2026
Justice Elena Kagan on Tuesday refused to intervene in a high-profile custody battle that involved difficult questions surrounding surrogacy and abortion, leaving in place a lower-court order that gave custody to the biological parents in the dispute.
The case drew...