Biomedical Ethics

by Viqi Wagner

Each title explores a specific issue by placing expert opinions in a unique pro/con format, exposing readers to many sides of a debate which promotes issue awareness as well as critical thinking.

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2007

Reviews

[Jenni Kroneman]

Bio Medical Ethics, edited by Viqi Wagner, is part of the Opposing Viewpoints Series. One aspect of the book that I appreciated is that the editor did a wonderful job choosing the essays to put into the book. They did a great job at choosing essays that discussed very similar aspects of the bio medical field. For example, there were two essays that both included alternatives to extracting stem cells from embryos and therefore essentially killing the embryos in the process. Both essays brought up the same four alternatives. Those include extracting cells from embryos that have already died, non-harmful biopsies of living embryos, using artificially created non-embryotic cell clusters, and reprogramming adult cells to transform into cells similar to ones from embryos. The first essay argues that these four techniques are viable and could possibly solve all of the ethical problems that follow along with stem cell testing. However, the second essay argues the opposite because they believe that none of those four options will really solve our ethical problems. They argue that the four alternatives also come with ethical problems of their own. I really appreciated this because they were talking about the exact same topics, but opposite views of the topic, so it lets the reader decided which side they believe in. Also, it is a great book for a persuasive paper like I am writing because it gives both side of every argument, so once you choose which side you will argue, you are already informed on the other side which you will have to argue against. In addition, this book also covers a wide variety of topics under the umbrella of bio medical, not just stem cells and cloning. For example, they have essays on organ transplants, fetal genetic testing, insurance having access to genetic test results, and how different religions feel differently about these issues. Overall, this book is very unbiased and super informative.