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Cover of "Whose View of Life?" featuring an image of gloved hands holding a cell culture sample
Published: 
April 2005
Publisher: 
Harvard University Press
ISBN: 
ISBN: ISBN: 0–674–01170–8 (hardcover) ISBN: 0–674–01766–8 (paperback)

Whose View of Life?

Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells
Author: 
Jane Maienschein

Regents’ Professor and director of the Center for Biology and Society, Maienschein “brings current debate into sharper focus by examining developments in stem cell research, cloning and embryology in historical and philosophical context and by exploring legal, social and ethical issues at the heart of what has become a political controversy” (Harvard Press).

Bio

Jane Maienschein is Regents' Professor, President's Professor and Parents Association Professor at the School of Life Sciences and director of the Center for Biology and Society at Arizona State University. She is also adjunct scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Praise for this book

"This is a wonderfully timely, sensible, and clear-headed look at the one of the most controversial issues in biomedicine today. It is just the book we would hope for from a distinguished historian of biology and medicine. Most people who have been following the story of cloning and stem cells for the last half dozen years or so — say since Dolly — have a grazing, close-up view. 'Whose View of Life?' provides the panoramic perspective that we sorely need. How lucky we are to have Jane Maienschein to widen our horizons."

Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Beak of the Finch"

"Jane Maienschein has written a startlingly clear account of our current knowledge and anxiety about embryos, stem cells and the swirl of politics that surrounds these issues. 'Whose View of Life?' is widely informative and yet balanced and even. This is a book that should be read by scientists, ethicists, moralists and the general public. Indeed, I hope the publishers send a free copy to each member of Congress."

Michael S. Gazzaniga, Dean of the Faculty at Dartmouth College and member of the President's Commission on Bioethics