Each new power won by man is a power over man as well. Each advance leaves him weaker as well as stronger. In every victory, besides being the general who triumphs, he is also the prisoner who follows the triumphal car.
These words, written in 1947 by the scholar of medieval English, CS Lewis, headed the Preface of the first edition of this book. The quotation, from the book The Abolition of Man, illustrates the ambiguity inherent in many scientific advances and technological inventions: they can be used for good or bad. It is probable that one of the issues that Lewis had in mind was nuclear fission but we can trace similar concerns down through the decades in other fields, including medicine, agriculture and biotechnology.
The idea is also expressed well by the historian Francis Fukuyama in his 2002 book, Our Posthuman Future:
Biotechnology presents us with a special moral dilemma, because any reservations we may have about progress need to be tempered with a recognition of its undisputed promise.
Thus, there has been a growing awareness of the need for informed discussion on the ethical issues arising in biological and biomedical sciences. This has led to bioethics courses being added to university degree programmes in life sciences, thus providing the impetus for our first edition, which was specifically written for students as well as for academics who were not yet engaged with bioethical issues. Feedback from members of our target audiences has been very positive and this has encouraged us to produce this second updated edition. Progress in many areas of biological and biomedical science has been spectacular in the 13 years since the first edition was published, providing huge opportunities for new developments in medicine, agriculture and biotechnology but also raising new ethical issues (or at the least, new ‘versions’ of old ethical issues). Further, this is set against a background of the expanding human population of our planet and of increasing concern about environmental issues, especially climate change.
All this has led us to an almost complete reworking of the book, although several useful case studies and examples from the first edition remain in this one. We have tried to be as up to date as is humanly possible but the speed of progress means that for some topics discussed here, further developments will have taken place in the few months between completion of the manuscript and publication. However, we will provide updates plus links to other relevant material on the book’s website www.wiley.com/go/Bryant/IntroductiontoBioethics2e, which will provide a very useful adjunct to the text.
It is a pleasure to express our thanks to the many people who have helped us in our thinking. First we must mention John Searle, our co‐author for the first edition but who, because of other commitments, has been unable to work with us on this edition. Nevertheless, he has always been willing to discuss bioethical issues, especially those arising at the end of life. We are very grateful for his support. We continue to be grateful to all those who helped us during our writing of the first edition. It has been a privilege for JB to work with Chris Willmott in our roles as bioethics advisors to the UK’s Higher Education Academy, during which we have enjoyed ongoing discussions of many bioethical issues. In relation to specific topics in this edition, we thank Alex Aylward and members of South West NHS Genomic Medicine Centre, Exeter (human genetics and genomics); Suzi Leather and Philippa Taylor (fertility issues and human embryology); Elaine Storkey (selective abortion); John Clifton‐Brown, John Love and David Stafford (biofuels); Margot Hodson, Martin Hodson, Rachel Oates and Chris Southgate (environmental issues); Steve Hughes (GM crops and biofuels); Hannah Farrimond (science/ethics); Tim Miller (for introducing us to ‘futurology’ literature); Mike Fowler (genetic piracy in relation to phytopharmacology).
We also thank our colleagues at Wiley‐Blackwell who have been very patient while waiting for us to finish this book. We thank them too for all the hard work that has gone into the production of the book.