God and the Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and Cloning
"Few readers are drawn to pick up a book of collected essays. Such volumes often seem spotty and only loosely integrated. ButGod and the Embryois an exception. It especially merits inclusion in any library concerned with the interface of stem cell research, medical ethics, and religious traditions." --Commonweal"God and the Embryois an excellent, provocative, intellectually challenging collection. It covers the bases from differing political and religious perspectives (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox). It makes conveniently available church documents, as well as a statement of the President's Council on Bioethics. Best of all, it uses debates about the embryo to engage basic issues in bioethics in a sophisticated way. These include the role of religion in public debate, 'personhood' and the status of the embryo, research ethics, law and ethics, and ethical judgments in situations of uncertainty. This work will raise the level of scholarly analysis, but also will be extremely useful in connecting applied ethics to fundamental ethics for seminary or university students." --Lisa Sowle Cahill, J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology, Boston College