Pharmacogenetics: Ethical Issues

Books reviewed:
Pharmacogenetics: Ethical Issues , Report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. London: Nuffield Council on Bioethics. 2003. xxiv + 103pp. £10 to all European countries (including postage); £15 to non-European countries (including postage); £0 to developing countries. Available free of charge at: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/filelibrary/pdf/pharmacogenetics_report     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed:
Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine, Ethics and Law , Rebecca J. Cook, Bernard M. Dickens and Mahmoud F. Fathalla. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003, xxvii + 554 pp. £16.99 (paperback), £45.00 (hardback). Reviewed by DENISE MEYERSON Professor in the Division of Law, Macquarie University, Australia.
Global Responses to AIDS: Science in Emergency , Cristiana Bastos. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999, xvii + 225 pp. US $27.95 (hardback). Reviewed by CHARLES NGWENA Department of Constitutional Law University of the Free State, South Africa     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in this Article:
Ethics and Biotechnology , edited by Anthony Dyson and John Harris. Routledge
Human In Vitro Fertilisation- A Case Study in the Regulation of Medical Innovation by Jennifer Gunning and Veronica English.
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychiatric Diagnostic Classification , edited by John Z. Sadfer, Osborne P. Wiggins and Michael A. Schwartz
Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies , by John A. Robertson.
Religious Methods and Resources in Bioethics , edited by Paul F. Camenisch.
Moral Matters: Ethical Issues in Medicine and the Life Sciences , by Arthur Caplan.
Wo lfgang Wagner(ed.). Arzneimittel und Verantwortung. Grundlagen und Methoden der Pharmaethik prugs and Responsibility — The Foundations and Methods of pharmaethics].
GenEthics. Technological Intervetion in Human Reproduction as a Philosophical Problem by Kurt Bayertz.
The Virtue in Medical Ethics , by Edmund D. Pellegrho and David C. Thomasma     

BOOK REVIEW

Beyond a Western Bioethics: Voices from the Developing World , edited by Angeles Tan Alora and Josephine M. Lumitao. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. xiv + 162 pp. US$59.95 (hardback).     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in this Article:
Accountability of Bioethics Committees and Consultants by Sigrid Fry Revere.
Research Ethics in Practice : The Animal Ethics Committees in Sweden,
The Beginning of Human Life edited by Fritz K. Beller and Robert F. Weir. Dordecht
Dementia und Aging: Ethics, Values, ad Policy Choices , edited by Robert H. Binstock, Stephen G. Post and Peter J. White-house.
Least Worst Death — Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life by Margaret Pabst Battin.
All God's Mistakes — Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital by Charles L. Bosk.
Informed Consent: Patient Autonomy and Physician Beneficence within Clinical Medicine by Stephen Wear.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
The Ethics of Reproductive Technology edited by Kenneth D. Alpern. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992
Medical Confidentiality and Legal Privilege by Jean V. McHale. London and New York: Routledge, 1993
The Codes of Codes , edited by Daniel J. Kevles and Leroy Hood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992
The Troubled Dream of Life: Living with Mortality by Daniel Callahan. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993
International Directory of Bioethics Organizations. Anita L. Nolen and Mary Carrington Coutts, editors. Bioethics Resource Series, Volume 1. Washington, DC: Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, 1993
The Codification of Medical Morality, Volume One: Medical Ethics and Etiquette in the Eighteenth Century , edited by Robert Baker, Dorothy Porter and Roy Porter. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1993
Pursuing Parenthood: Ethical Issues in Assisted Reproduction by Paul Lauritzen. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews in this Article:
AIDS and the Good Society , by Patricia Illingworth
Genethics: The moral issues in the creation of people , by David Heyd
AIDS: Diritti & Doveri del Personale delle Instituzioni di Assistenza Sanitaria , Milano.
AIDS, Women and the Next Generation: Towards a Morally Acceptable Public Policy for HIV Testing of Pregnant Women and Newborns edited by Ruth R. Faden
Rights to Health Care (Philosophy and Medicine 38 ), edited by Thomas J. Bole III and William B. Bondeson, Dordrecht
Theological Developments in Bioethics: 1988–1990 edited by Baruch A. Brody, B. Andrew Lustig, H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. and Laurence B. McCullough
Organ Replacement Therapy: Ethics, Justice, Commerce , edited by W. Land and J.B. Dossetor
Regelungen der Fortpflanzungsmedizin und Humangenetik. Eine Internationale Dokumentation gesetzlicher und berufsständischer Rechtsquellen (Regulations of Procreative Medicine and Genetic Research on Humans.
Practical Medical Ethics by Alistair Campbell, Grant Gillett and Gareth Jones
Balancing Act: The New Medical Ethics of Medicine's New Economics by E. Haavi Morreim.
Bioethics and Secular Humanism by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. London: SCM Press     

Who should fund and control the direction of human behavior genetics? Review of Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2002 Report,Genetics and Human Behaviour: the Ethical Context

In this ( Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2002) , the third in its series on ethics and related issues in genetics (see also Nuffield Council on Bioethics 1993 and Nuffield Council on Bioethics 1998) , the Nuffield Council has focused on four 'normal' behaviors; intelligence, personality, antisocial behavior and sexual orientation. This is a narrow range of behaviors and one where their discussion of the potential impact of predictive genetic testing is probably inappropriate. They also take an unduly narrow view of the purposes of behavior genetics in the 21st century. It is not simply to estimate heritability but to understand more about the structure of behavior and the processes which underlie it. Their narrow focus and their negative approach to the history and achievements of genetics is reflected in their less than positive support for future behavior genetic research. Behavior geneticists need to do more to publicize what their field has achieved in order to counter the very extensive antibehavior genetics initiatives which are almost unique in science. At the same time, organizations such as the Nuffield Council need to consider carefully the impact their deliberations may have on research funding.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Beginning Lives , by Rosalind Hursthouse.
On Moral Medicine:Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics , edited by Stephen E. Lammers and Allen Verhey.
Quantitative Risk Assessment , edited by James M. Humber and Robert F.
A Theory of Value and Obligation , by Robin Attfield.
Ethical Issues at the Outset of Life , edited by William B. Weil Jr. and Martin Benjamin.
Legal Frontiers of Death and Dying by Norman L. Cantor
Having Your Baby By Donor Insemination:A Complete Resource Guide , by Elizabeth Noble     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in this Article:
The Uses of Philosophy , by Mary Warnock
Issues in Reproductive Technology , by Helen Bequaert Holmes (ed)
Life Before Birth: The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses , by Bonnie Steinbock
The Ethics of Diagnosis , edited by Jose Luis Peset and Diego Gracia.
Gene Mapping: Using Law and Ethics as Guides , edited by George J. Annas and Sherman Elias.
Creation and Abortion: A Study in Moral and Legal Philosophy , by F.M. Kamm.
Wonderwoman and Superman: The Ethics of Human Biotechnology , by John Harris
International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects , by Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS)     

Pharmacogenomics: Social, Ethical, and Clinical Dimensions

Books reviewed:
Pharmacogenomics: Social, Ethical, and Clinical Dimensions , edited by M.A. Rothstein. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Liss, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 368 pp. US$ 64.95 (hardback)     

The Nuffield Council’s green light for genome editing human embryos defies fundamental human rights law

In July 2018, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics released the report Genome editing and human reproduction: Social and ethical issues, concluding that human germline modification of human embryos for implantation is not ‘morally unacceptable in itself’ and could be ethically permissible in certain circumstances once the risks of adverse outcomes have been assessed and the procedure appears ‘reasonably safe’. The Nuffield Council set forth two main principles governing anticipated uses and envisions applications that may include health enhancements as a public health measure. This essay provides a critique of three aspects in the Nuffield Council’s Report: its presumption of therapeutic efficacy, its inflation of parental rights to create a certain type of child, and its reliance on a specially commissioned report that appears to distort key definitions in international law.     

Principles of environmental physics

Book Review

Principles of environmental physicsJ.L. Monteith and M.H. Unsworth Second edition. London: Edward Arnold, 1990. xii + 291 pages. £30.00 (hardback), £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0-7131-2931-X     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviws in this Article Meta-Medical Ethics: The Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics, edited by Michael A. Grodin. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995 Autonoaty and Intervention: Parentalism in the Caring Life, by Job Kultgen. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995 Long-Term Care Decisions, Ethical and Conceptual Dimensions, edited by Laurence McCullough and Nancy Wilson. Baltimore; The John Hopkins University Press, 1995 Contemplating Suicide: The Language and Ethics of Self Harm by Gavin Fairbairn. Landon and New York: Routledge, 1995     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Neurotransmitters and Epilepsy edited by P. C. Jobe and H. E. Laird II.
Alzheimer's Disease: Problems, Prospects, and Perspectives edited by H. J. Altman.     

Seed dormancy and germination (tertiary level biology)

Book review

Seed dormancy and germination (tertiary level biology)J W Bradbeer, Glasgow: Blackie &; Son 1988. x + 146 pages. £23.00 hardback; £10.95 paperback. ISBN 0-216 91635-6; ISBN 0-216-91636-4 PbK     

Ownership and uses of human tissue: does the Nuffield bioethics report accord with opinion of surgical inpatients?

OBJECTIVE: To compare opinion of surgical inpatients with the conclusions of the report of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics regarding the ownership and uses of human tissue. DESIGN: Survey of results of questionnaires completed by patients. SETTING: Large teaching hospital. SUBJECTS: 384 postoperative adult surgical patients. RESULTS: There was strong support among patients for the use of tissues in medical education, research, and science with the exception of those tissues which may transmit disease to others. Few patients (39; 10%) believed that they retained ownership of tissue removed at surgery. Most believed that the tissue belonged to the hospital (103; 27%), to nobody (103; 27%), or to the laboratory (77; 20%). Most patients had not been given any information about the possible uses of their tissues after removal. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical inpatients seem to endorse the conclusions of the Nuffield report regarding the ownership and uses of human tissue. The recommendations regarding patient information and consent procedures should be implemented at the earliest opportunity.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviws in this Article Buddhism & Bioethics by Damien Keown, St.Martin's Press, Inc., 1995, 208 pages Genetic Counselling — Practice and principles, edited by Angus Clarke. London and New York: Routledge, 1994 The Bodies of Women Ethics, Embodiment and Sexual Difference by Rosalyn Diprose, London and New York, Routledge, 1994 Ethical Issues in Nursing edited by Geoffrey Hunt, London and New York, Routledge, 1994     

Debating ethics and public policy: the Nuffield Council on Bioethics

Concerns about bioethical issues raised by scientific developments in genetics are a common feature of both public and policy debates in the UK. This article sets out how one such body, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, contributes to public and policy debates, and provides information about similar bodies in the UK and around the world.