The pressing public debate over stem cell research and cloning runs the risk of becoming intractable. In an effort to escape the irresolubility of the abortion debate, frozen over the question of the status of the human embryo, Gilbert Meilaender turns his attention instead to the arguments employed to justify the research. He suggests that efforts to reason well about such matters do well to take account of the lessons and ethics of waging war. By Nigel M. de S. Cameron Agenda for a Brave New World Advances in biotechnology are now beginning to overshadow the field of bioethics. Our dilemma is that new technologies have come at a time when the moral consensus that has given coherence to Western culture threatens to collapse.
Human dignity is the issue.