This book offers an empirically detailed, cross-nationally comparative account of the institutional logics and practices through which modern democratic governments construct public reason, that is, the forms of evidence and argument designed to persuade publics that legal and policy decisions are founded on reliable knowledge and expertise.
"Biology and politics have converged today across much of the industrialized world. Debates about genetically modified organisms, cloning, stem cells, animal patenting, and new reproductive technologies crowd media headlines and policy agendas. Less noticed, but no less important, are the rifts that have appeared among leading Western nations about the right way to govern innovation in genetics and biotechnology. In this sweeping study of some twenty-five years of scientific and social development, Sheila Jasanoff compares the politics and policy of the life sciences in Britain, Germany, the United States, and in the European Union as a whole. She shows how public and private actors in each setting evaluate the products of biotechnology and try to reassure themselves about their safety."--Back cover
Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science’s growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature’s mistakes. Yet, how far should the capacity to manipulate what life is at the molecular level authorize science to define what life is for? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that science’s promises of perfectibility have gone too far. Science may have editorial control over the material elements of life, but it does not supersede the languages of sense-making that have helped define human values across millennia: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship, family, and society; and the place of humans in nature.
We live in a world increasingly governed by technology-but at what cost?
Being an ethical organization is fast becoming a business advantage but soon it will be an imperative. I.e. you will not be rewarded for being a responsible organization, but you will be punished if you are not. However, most organizations lack a deep understanding of how to act ethically in a business context, they do not have a language to discuss it and they do not have the tools to develop ethical principles and operationalize them to ensure their businesses becomes part of the solution rather than part of the problem.In this anthology, a distinct group of global thought leaders within fields such as AI, neuroscience, leadership, culture, strategy, and innovation provides inspiration, insights, and concrete tools to help you solve near future ethical dilemmas to the benefit of your organization and to the benefit of the world.