Efforts to evaluate the clinical encounter in terms of autonomous agents governed by rationally justified moral principles continue to be criticised. These essays, written by physicians, ethicists, theologians and philosophers, examine various models of the clinical encounter emerging out of these criticisms and explore the prospects they offer for theological and religious discourse. Individual essays focus on the reformulation of covenant models; revisions of principles approaches; and topics such as power, authority, narrative, rhetoric, dialogue, and alterity. The essays display a range...

B. Andrew Lustig, Baruch A. Brody, and Gerald P. McKenny Nearly every week the general public is treated to an announcement of another actual or potential breakthrough in biotechnology. Headlines trumpet advances in assisted reproduction, current or prospective experiments in cloning, and devel- ments in regenerative medicine, stem cell technologies, and tissue engineering. Scientific and popular accounts explore the perils and the possibilities of enhancing human capacities by computer-based, biomolecular, or mechanical means through advances in artificial intelligence, genetics, and...

The two volumes of Altering Nature consider the complex ways that concepts of 'nature' and 'the natural' are understood and the relevance of those understandings to discussions of biotechnology.

Volume One, Concepts of 'Nature' and 'The Natural' in Biotechnology Debates, offers nuanced accounts of the ways that nature is invoked and interpreted, both descriptively and prescriptively, by different disciplines, including perspectives from spirituality and religion, philosophy, science and medicine, law and economics, and aesthetics.

In the context of that broad discussion,...