Heredity and Hope: The Case for Genetic Screening

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 304 pages
• Published by: Harvard University Press
• Edition: 1st Edition May 20, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0674024249
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0674024243
• Book Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 15.2 ounces

Product Review
Ruth Cowan, an unabashed supporter of genetic screening and prenatal diagnosis, explains how they have enabled parents at risk to have children free of debilitating or deadly genetic diseases. She is a masterful and altogether convincing guide.
--Daniel Kevles, Yale University

Elegantly written and thoroughly researched, Ruth Schwartz Cowan's wisdom shines forth on every page of this critically important book.
--Dr. Howard Markel, author of When Germs Travel

Cowanadeptly and persuasively shows why the normative foundation for contemporary genetic screening is sound, why it should not be tarred with the brush of racist eugenics and where the real challenges and conundrums lie for those involved in screening now and in the future.
--. Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania

Passionate, well-researched, and controversial, Heredity and Hope provides important historical illumination on an issue which activists and analysts from many perspectives will be eager to address.
--Rayna Rapp, author of Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: the Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America

Modern healers may claim science to be the foundation of their work, but the key is, in fact, persuasion: to heed advice, to push and persevere, to hope. As the genome is further dissected and better understood, no family of diseases warrants more genuine hope for successful management than genetic conditions. Cowan understands that we must all share that hope for the campaign to be successful.
--Hugh Young Rienhoff Jr. (Nature )

Product Description


The secrets locked in our genes are being revealed, and we find ourselves both enthused and frightened about what that portends. We look forward to curing disease and alleviating suffering—for our children as well as for ourselves—but we also worry about delving too deeply into the double helix. Abuses perpetrated by eugenicists—from involuntary sterilization to murder—continue to taint our feelings about genetic screening.

Yet, as Ruth Schwartz Cowan reveals, modern genetic screening has been practiced since 1960, benefiting millions of women and children all over the world. She persuasively argues that new forms of screening—prenatal, newborn, and carrier testing—are both morally right and politically acceptable. Medical genetics, built on the desire of parents and physicians to reduce suffering and increase personal freedom, not on the desire to “improve the human race,” is in fact an entirely different enterprise from eugenics.

Cowan’s narrative moves from an account of the interwoven histories of genetics and eugenics in the first half of the twentieth century, to the development of new forms of genetic screening after mid-century. It includes illuminating chapters on the often misunderstood testing programs for sickle cell anemia, and on the world’s only mandated premarital screening programs, both of them on the island of Cyprus.

Neither minimizing the difficulty of the choices that modern genetics has created for us nor fearing them, Cowan bravely and compassionately argues that we can improve the quality of our own lives and the lives of our children by using the modern science and technology of genetic screening responsibly. (20080522)

Reader Reviews
Ruth Schwartz Cowan's book is well written and exceptionally insightful. She makes a strong argument for allowing families to make informed decisions when there is the risk of having a child with a devastating disease. This book is a thoughtful examination of the emergence of genetic screening as a method to reduce profound human suffering. It is certainly not an argument for using genetic screening to eliminate undesirable individuals or to avoid the challenges of life with a manageable disease. It does provide solid background and support for the widely held belief that until definitive therapies or cures are available, genetic screening provides the best method for allowing families to make informed decisions about how to deal with devastating diseases. "Heredity and Hope: The Case for Genetic Screening" not only shows why genetic screening should be adopted as a means to reduce the frequency of new cases of debilitating and fatal diseases, it also explains how genetic screening is the key to helping at-risk individuals have healthy children. Ruth Schwartz Cowan's research is thorough, her conclusions are sound, and her advice should be taken to heart. A comprehensive genetic screening effort, properly managed and administered, will reduce human suffering and will increase the likelihood that children will be born with the best possible chances for survival.