Since the original publication of Playing God? in 1996, three developments in genetic technology have moved to the center of the public conversation about the ethics of human bioengineering. Cloning, the completion of the human genome project, and, most recently, the controversy over stem cell research have all sparked lively debates among religious thinkers and the makers of public policy. In this updated edition, Ted Peters illuminates the key issues in these debates and continues to make deft connections between our questions about God and our efforts to manage technological innovations with wisdom.
Ted Peters is Professor of Systematic Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is the author of God--The World's Future and the editor of Dialog, A Journal ofTheology
Acknowledgments Foreword Preface 1. Playing God with DNA 2. Puppet Determinism and Promethean Determinism 3. The Crime Gene, Stigma, and Original Sin 4. The So-Called Gay Gene and Scientized Morality 5. Should We Patent God's Creation? 6. The Question of Germline Intervention 7. The Cloning Controversy 8. The Stem Cell Controversy 9. A Theology of Freedom Appendix A: CTNS Statement On The Gay Gene Discovery Appendix B: Playing God With David Heyd