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Risk management and political culture : a comparative analysis of science in the policy context

Can science make sense of life?

"Nearly 70 years after the dawn of the genetic age, biotechnology, scientists proclaim, is poised to rewrite the book of life. Yet, how far can science go in making sense of what "life" means to human beings and societies? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that the claims of rewriting life are overblown"--Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science's growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature's mistakes. Yet, how far should the capacity to manipulate what life is at the molecular level authorize science to define what life is for? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that science's promises of perfectibility have gone too far. Science may have editorial control over the material elements of life, but it does not supersede the languages of sense-making that have helped define human values across millennia: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship, family, and society; and the place of humans in nature.

The ethics of invention : technology and the human future

"A professor of science and technology studies at Harvard Kennedy School candidly documents society's embrace of technological solutions and technology's complex interplay with ethics and human rights, challenging readers to build a future in which we work together to manage the risks and promises of technology,"--NoveList.Sheila Jasanoff charts society's embrace of technological solutions and technology's complex interplay with ethics and human rights. She dissects the ways in which we delegate power to technological systems and asks how we might regain control. From GMOs to gene therapy, biomedicine has challenged traditional definitions of life and death and raised difficult questions, such as who owns our genetic information. The Internet has redefined privacy with social media and search giants operating as new, all-powerful "data oligarchs", while cyber warfare has weakened the boundaries of the nation-state. Jasanoff shows that, far from being an amoral or apolitical force, technology has important consequences for government of, by and for the people. The Ethics of Invention challenges us to build a future in which we work in open, democratic dialogue to manage the risks and promises of technology.