Download or read book Embryos Under the Microscope written by Jane Maienschein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jane Maienschein examines how understanding of embryos evolved from the speculations of natural philosophers to bioengineering, with its life-enhancing therapies. She shows that research on embryos has always seemed promising to some but frightening to others, and makes the case that public understanding must be informed by scientific findings.

Download or read book Whose View of Life written by Jane Maienschein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saving lives versus taking lives: These are the stark terms in which the public regards human embryo research--a battleground of extremes, a war between science and ethics. Such a simplistic dichotomy, encouraged by vociferous opponents of abortion and proponents of medical research, is precisely what Jane Maienschein seeks to counter with this book. Whose View of Life? brings the current debates into sharper focus by examining developments in stem cell research, cloning, and embryology in historical and philosophical context and by exploring legal, social, and ethical issues at the heart of what has become a political controversy. Drawing on her experience as a researcher, teacher, and congressional fellow, Jane Maienschein provides historical and contemporary analysis to aid understanding of the scientific and social forces that got us where we are today. For example, she explains the long-established traditions behind conflicting views of how life begins--at conception or gradually, in the course of development. She prepares us to engage a major question of our day: How are we, as a 21st-century democratic society, to navigate a course that is at the same time respectful of the range of competing views of life, built on the strongest possible basis of scientific knowledge, and still able to respond to the momentous opportunities and challenges presented to us by modern biology? Maienschein's multidisciplinary perspective will provide a starting point for further attempts to answer this question.

Download or read book Living Embryos written by Jack Cohen and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living Embryos: An Introduction to the Study of Animal Development, Revised Second Edition presents the processes of development as seen throughout the animal kingdom. This book discusses the development of the organ systems of vertebrates. Comprised of 41 chapters, this edition starts with an overview of the history of the study of embryology, which is concerned with the process by which the adult arises from the fertilized egg. This text then discusses the role of the sperm in the determination of bilateral symmetry. Other chapters consider the development of the frog in order to give a basis for comparison with other species. This book discusses as well the structure of the hen's egg and illustrates the various stages of the development of the chick. The final chapter deals with animal evolution, which produces a wide variety of animal forms. Embryologists, zoologists, medical students, graduate students, university lecturers, and teachers will find this book extremely useful.

Download or read book Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-01-25 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent scientific breakthroughs, celebrity patient advocates, and conflicting religious beliefs have come together to bring the state of stem cell researchâ€"specifically embryonic stem cell researchâ€"into the political crosshairs. President Bush's watershed policy statement allows federal funding for embryonic stem cell research but only on a limited number of stem cell lines. Millions of Americans could be affected by the continuing political debate among policymakers and the public. Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine provides a deeper exploration of the biological, ethical, and funding questions prompted by the therapeutic potential of undifferentiated human cells. In terms accessible to lay readers, the book summarizes what we know about adult and embryonic stem cells and discusses how to go about the transition from mouse studies to research that has therapeutic implications for people. Perhaps most important, Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine also provides an overview of the moral and ethical problems that arise from the use of embryonic stem cells. This timely book compares the impact of public and private research funding and discusses approaches to appropriate research oversight. Based on the insights of leading scientists, ethicists, and other authorities, the book offers authoritative recommendations regarding the use of existing stem cell lines versus new lines in research, the important role of the federal government in this field of research, and other fundamental issues.

Download or read book Icons of Life written by Lynn Morgan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-09-09 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Icons of Life tells the engrossing and provocative story of an early twentieth-century undertaking, the Carnegie Institution of Washington's project to collect thousands of embryos for scientific study. Lynn M. Morgan blends social analysis, sleuthing, and humor to trace the history of specimen collecting. In the process, she illuminates how a hundred-year-old scientific endeavor continues to be felt in today's fraught arena of maternal and fetal politics. Until the embryo collecting project-which she follows from the Johns Hopkins anatomy department, through Baltimore foundling homes, and all the way to China-most people had no idea what human embryos looked like. But by the 1950s, modern citizens saw in embryos an image of "ourselves unborn," and embryology had developed a biologically based story about how we came to be. Morgan explains how dead specimens paradoxically became icons of life, how embryos were generated as social artifacts separate from pregnant women, and how a fetus thwarted Gertrude Stein's medical career. By resurrecting a nearly forgotten scientific project, Morgan sheds light on the roots of a modern origin story and raises the still controversial issue of how we decide what embryos mean.

Download or read book Shaping Life written by John Maynard Smith and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past ten years, there has been a revolution in our understanding of developmental biology, as scientists apply the ideas and techniques of genetics and embryology to the processes of development. In this book, John Maynard Smith gives an account of the progress that has been made in this field -- in our knowledge of both the development of individuals and the evolution of the species. Maynard Smith points out that there is a parallel between the developmental changes that convert an egg into an adult and the evolutionary changes converted simple single-celled ancestors into the existing array of multicellular animals and plants. Genetic studies provide the necessary link between development and evolution: natural selection explains how information is incorporated in the genome, and development shows what use is made of it during the development of each individual. Traditionally, two very different views have been held about development. Maynard Smith argues that the differences between them are not so much scientific as ideological -- one can be considered reductionist and the other holistic. But because of advances in the science underpinning both viewpoints, he says, the possibility of a dialogue between them is great, which will be beneficial to the entire discipline.

Download or read book Embryos Galaxies and Sentient Beings written by Richard Grossinger and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is the universe conscious? What kindles mind inside matter? Why do fundamentalist sciences and religions never ask these questions? This sequel to Embryogenesis deals with the theoretical issues brought up by Embryogenesis, including: the relationship between thermodynamics/entropy and the emergence of life; a speculative set of embryogenic principles for all creatures on all planets in the cosmos; an explanation and critique of Intelligent Design and a proposal for a more dynamic psychospiritual theory of creature development; a series of alternatives to genetic determinism; a discussion of the relationship between consciousness and matter; an interjection of 9/11 (which occurred during the writing of this book); and many other topics. Chapters include: What is Life?: Evolution, Thermodynamics, and Complexity; Is There a Plan?: Creationism, Cultural Relativism, and Paraphysics; Biogenesis and Cosmogenesis: Cells, Genes, and Planets; The Principles of Biological Design: Physical Forces in Nature; The Dynamics of the Biosphere: Deep Time and Space; The Limits of Genetic Determinism: Dimensionless Epigenetic Landscapes; Topokinesis: Physical Forces in Development; Tissue Motifs and Body Plans: Coordinating Form; The Primordial Field: Metabiology and The Molecular Apparatus; Meaning and Destiny: The Relation of Consciousness to Matter

Download or read book Freezing Fertility written by Lucy van de Wiel and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcomed as liberation and dismissed as exploitation, egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) has rapidly become one of the most widely-discussed and influential new reproductive technologies of this century. In Freezing Fertility, Lucy van de Wiel takes us inside the world of fertility preservation—with its egg freezing parties, contested age limits, proactive anticipations and equity investments—and shows how the popularization of egg freezing has profound consequences for the way in which female fertility and reproductive aging are understood, commercialized and politicized. Beyond an individual reproductive choice for people who may want to have children later in life, Freezing Fertility explores how the rise of egg freezing also reveals broader cultural, political and economic negotiations about reproductive politics, gender inequities, age normativities and the financialization of healthcare. Van de Wiel investigates these issues by analyzing a wide range of sources—varying from sparkly online platforms to heart-breaking court cases and intimate autobiographical accounts—that are emblematic of each stage of the egg freezing procedure. By following the egg’s journey, Freezing Fertility examines how contemporary egg freezing practices both reflect broader social, regulatory and economic power asymmetries and repoliticize fertility and aging in ways that affect the public at large. In doing so, the book explores how the possibility of egg freezing shifts our relation to the beginning and end of life.

Download or read book Molecular Biology of the Cell written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Haeckel s Embryos written by Nick Hopwood and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-11 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emphasizing the changes worked by circulation and copying, interpretation and debate, this book uses the case to explore how pictures succeed and fail, gain acceptance and spark controversy. It reveals how embryonic development was made a process that we can see, compare, and discuss, and how copying - usually dismissed as unoriginal

Download or read book Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-06-17 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human reproductive cloning is an assisted reproductive technology that would be carried out with the goal of creating a newborn genetically identical to another human being. It is currently the subject of much debate around the world, involving a variety of ethical, religious, societal, scientific, and medical issues. Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning considers the scientific and medical sides of this issue, plus ethical issues that pertain to human-subjects research. Based on experience with reproductive cloning in animals, the report concludes that human reproductive cloning would be dangerous for the woman, fetus, and newborn, and is likely to fail. The study panel did not address the issue of whether human reproductive cloning, even if it were found to be medically safe, would beâ€"or would not beâ€"acceptable to individuals or society.

Download or read book Human Embryos Human Beings written by Samuel B. Condic and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2018-06-29 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale of two ontologies : are humans designated or discovered?. - Ontology and embryos : on being an embryo. - Arguments from ontology : it can't be human because it contradicts, ontologically. - Arguments from potential : it can't be human because it contradicts, factually. - Arguments from observation : it could be human, but the facts suggest otherwise. - Developmental systems theory and fuzzy organisms : it's not human until we say it's human. - The postmodern connection : form, fiat, and intention. - Humans and organization : defining the hallmarks of human existence. - Some difficult cases : a practical guide for evaluation. - A contested case : altered nuclear transfer : how to evaluate entities produced by experimenters. - Metaphysics matters.

Download or read book Life Before Birth The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses written by Albany Bonnie Steinbock Associate Professor of Philosophy & Public Policy State University of New York and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992-07-23 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hardly a day passes without newspaper coverage of some new development regarding prenatal life. The abortion debate continues to rage, but other examples abound: forced Caesareans; prosecutions of women for drug use during pregnancy; fetal protection policies; the use of fetal tissue for transplantation; embryo research; and the disposition of frozen embryos. All of these issues raise the question of the moral status of the unborn: are embryos and fetuses part of the pregnant woman or are they persons? Are they sources of tissue, research tools, or are they pre-born children? Different conceptions of the unborn prevail in different contexts, giving rise to the charge of inconsistency. For example, women have been criminally charged with abusing their fetuses by using drugs during pregnancy, even though abortion--which pro-lifers call the ultimate child abuse--is legal. The legalization of abortion itself was based in part on the unborn's never having been recognized in law as a full legal person. Yet fetuses have been considered as persons for the purposes of insurance coverage, wrongful death suits, and vehicular homicide. This book provides a framework for thinking clearly and coherently about the unborn. The first chapter elaborates the book's basic idea, that all and only beings who have interests have moral standing, and only beings who possess conscious awareness have interests. This thesis, which is called "the interest view," raises issues of considerable philosophical complexity, but is presented in language non-philosophers will be able to understand. Subsequent chapters apply the interest view, and explore the moral and legal aspects of a wide range of issues, including abortion, the legal status of the fetus outside abortion, maternal-fetal conflict, fetal research, and the use and disposition of extracorporeal embryos resulting from the new reproductive technologies. The philosophical discussion is enlivened by examples and actual cases which immediately catch, and sustain, the reader's interest. Written in a lively style, Life Before Birth: The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses is a timely and important work that enables us to resolve contradictions in our current thinking about the unborn, and to approach new issues in a clear and rational manner.

Download or read book Embryo written by Robert P. George and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draws on current scientific research and moral philosophy to shed new light on the debate over abortion and stem-cell research, and maintains that, from the moment of conception, embryos are entitled to the full protection of the law.

Download or read book Science and Babies written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1990-02-01 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.

Download or read book Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human Life written by Fabrizio Amerini and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-10 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In contemporary discussions of abortion, both sides argue well-worn positions, particularly concerning the question, When does human life begin? Though often invoked by the Catholic Church for support, Thomas Aquinas in fact held that human life begins after conception, not at the moment of union. But his overall thinking on questions of how humans come into being, and cease to be, is more subtle than either side in this polarized debate imagines. Fabrizio Amerini—an internationally-renowned scholar of medieval philosophy—does justice to Aquinas’ views on these controversial issues. Some pro-life proponents hold that Aquinas’ position is simply due to faulty biological knowledge, and if he knew what we know today about embryology, he would agree that human life begins at conception. Others argue that nothing Aquinas could learn from modern biology would have changed his mind. Amerini follows the twists and turns of Aquinas’ thinking to reach a nuanced and detailed solution in the final chapters that will unsettle familiar assumptions and arguments. Systematically examining all the pertinent texts and placing each in historical context, Amerini provides an accurate reconstruction of Aquinas’ account of the beginning and end of human life and assesses its bioethical implications for today. This major contribution is available to an English-speaking audience through translation by Mark Henninger, himself a noted scholar of medieval philosophy.

Download or read book Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance written by Dmitry M. Kissin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-04 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a comprehensive guide to assisted reproductive technology surveillance, describing its history, global variations, and best practices.