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6IntroductionIn Vexing Nature?, Springer Us. pp. 1-11. 2000.Agricultural biotechnology refers to a diverse set of industrial techniques used to produce genetically modified foods. Genetically modified foods are foods manipulated at the molecular level to enhance their value to farmers and consumers. This book is a collection of essays on the ethical dimensions of ag biotech. The essays were written over a dozen years, beginning in 1988.
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5The Case Against bGHIn Vexing Nature?, Springer Us. pp. 13-33. 2000.Bovine growth hormone is a protein that occurs naturally in cattle. A chain of 190 amino acids, bGH is produced by the pituitary gland and helps to regulate a cow’s lactational cycle; generally speaking and up to a certain point, the more bGH a cow has, the more milk she gives. Using the techniques of genetic engineering, researchers at Monsanto Company have isolated the gene that produces the protein and devised low-cost techniques to manufacture it. Bacteria are placed into fermentation chambe…Read more
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5ConclusionIn Vexing Nature?, Springer Us. pp. 285-288. 2000.When social issues involve questions as momentous as global survival, ethicists should do more than analyze arguments and formulate principles. They should help us find stories to put our values into practice. In the essays collected here, I have tried to tell my story in the hope that others might find it instructive.
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2Problems for the Case Against Ag Biotech, Part II: Extrinsic ObjectionsIn , Springer Us. pp. 225-283. 2000.Thus the extrinsic argument against ag biotech. In considering whether it is a good argument, I believe we should simply assume that is true. Substantially risky technologies, perhaps by definition, should not be developed. Seeing no reason to contest, therefore, I will focus on.
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2Life Science Ethics (edited book)Iowa State University Press. 2002.The first section of Life Science Ethics introduces students to essential background concepts in moral theory -- ethics, the relationship of religion to ethics, how to assess ethical arguments, and a method used to reason about ethical theories. The next section demonstrates the relevance of ethical reasoning to six topics: -- The relative moral standing of ecosystems, nonhuman animals, and future human generations -- The moral justifiability of genetic engineering as a whole and the patenting …Read more
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2An Extensionist Environmental EthicBiodiversity and Conservation 4 (8): 827-837. 1995.Environmental ethics consists of a set of competing theories about whether human actions and attitudes to nature are morally right or wrong. Ecocentrists are holists whose theory locates the primary site of value in biological communities or ecosystems and who tend to regard actions interfering with the progress of an ecosystem toward its mature equilibrium state as prima facie wrong. I suggest that this form of ecocentrism may be built on a questionable scientific foundation, organismic ecology…Read more
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1Face to face with It: The naive reader's moral response to "Ivan Ilych"Neophilologus 70 (3): 321-333. 1986.This paper argues that a naive reader's moral response to a short story should be considered part of the story's meaning.
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Agricultural EthicsIn Edward Craig (ed.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge. 1998.
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The Yoruba and Religious ChangeJournal of Religion in Africa 10 (1): 1-12. 1979.This paper tests some recent paradigms for dealing with religious change against the evidence of Yoruba studies.
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Ethics and agricultural biotechnology: More opposing viewpoints, IntroductionJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 8 (2): 95-97. 1995.
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Research with transgenic animals: obligations and issuesJournal of Biolaw and Business 2 (1): 51-55. 1998.
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Review of: Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case Against Agricultural Biotechnology (review)Environmental Values 12 (3): 403-405. 2003.
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Life Science Ethics, 2nd ed (edited book)Springer. 2010.This second edition of Life Science Ethics includes four essays not found in the first edition: Richard Haynes on “Animals in Research” Stephen M. Gardiner on “Climate Change” Christopher Kelty on “Nanotechnology” Gary Comstock on “Genetically Modified Foods” and a revised and expanded version of the chapter on “Farms” in which Stephen Carpenter joins Charles Taliaferro as author. In addition, Part III has been thoroughly revised with the goal of focusing attention on salient examples. Three new…Read more
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Ethics and Agricultural Biotechnology: Opposing ViewpointsJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 4 (2). 1991.
University of Chicago
PhD, 1983
APA Eastern Division
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Applied Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Persons |
Animal Rights |
Philosophy of Consciousness |
Human Nature |