Adam, Eve, and the Genome: The Human Genome Project and Theology (Theology and the Sciences)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 200 pages
• Published by: Augsburg Fortress Publishers October 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0800636147
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0800636142
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 12 ounces

Book Description
The project to map the human genetic codes has been widely hailed as a monumental achievement with vast medical promise. Yet the project is also fraught with ambiguities and, Susan Thistlethwaite claims, great potential dangers to society. This important book combines a basic primer on genetic research with ethical reflection by an interdisciplinary team on key questions and a deeper look, in light of such research, at what it means to be human.

Part 1 of the book places genetic research in historical perspective, including the historical prickliness between science and religion. It shows how we have gotten from Gregor Mendels experiments with peas to todays Human Genome Project. Part 2 explores ethical issues posed by genetic testing, screening, and counseling; gene therapy; stem-cell research; dangers of misuse through genetic identification; and engineering of particular populations (violent people, ethnic groups, gays and lesbians). Part 3 explores the possibilities of reconstruing human identity for the coming "biological age." Contributors include Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Laurel Schneider, Lainie Ross, Theodore W. Jennings Jr., Ken Stone, and Lee Butler.

About The Author
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, President of Chicago Theological Seminary, is a theologian and social ethicist whose many influential books include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the U.S. (with Rita Nakashima Brock; Fortress Press, 1996), Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside (with Mary Potter Engel, 1998), and Sex, Race, and God: Christian Feminism in Black and White (1989).