A leading geneticist explores the "brave new world" of baby-making in an age that looks onward from IVF and surrogacy to human clones and genetic engineering. Lee Silver explains the science of embryology, explores what science can and will be able to do to affect the natural processes, and through a series of individual stories, both contemporary and imagined from the future, looks at the moral, ethical and legal implications.

Could a child have two genetic mothers? Will parents someday soon be able to choose not only the physical characteristics of their children-to-be, but their personalities and talents as well? Will genetic enhancement ultimately lead to a split in the human species? In this brilliant, provocative, and necessary book, Lee M. Silver takes a cautiously optimistic look at the scientific advances that will allow us to engineer life in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago—indeed, in ways that go far beyond cloning. In clear, engaging, and accessible prose, Silver demystifies the science behind a myriad of thrilling and frightening new possibilities, in a book that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the hopes and dilemmas of the American family in the twenty-first century.

On February 27, 1997, a stunning announcement appeared in the British journal Nature: for the first time ever, a mammal--a lamb named Dolly--had been successfully cloned from an adult cell. Less than a week later, scientists reported the successful cloning of a rhesus monkey, a primate whose reproduction and development is almost identical to our own. With two bold and hitherto unthinkable strokes, science fiction was transformed into science fact, preparing the way for a miraculous event that is, in all probability, inevitable: the cloning of a human being. A distinguished scientist and professor at Princeton University, Lee M. Silver reveals what awaits us in the brilliant light of the new day that is now dawning. REMAKING EDEN is a fascinating exploration of the future of reprogenetic technologies--a cautiously optimistic look at the scientific advances that will allow us to engineer life in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago. Indeed, in ways that go far beyond cloning, and that are at once more thrilling and more frightening. This is a brilliant, provocative, and necessary book. For better or worse, it describes the likely future of humankind--beyond fears both reasoned and unreasonable, beyond unrealistic utopian visions--an extra ordinary journey into a rapidly evolving tomorrow that no man or woman can forestall, but that we must all recognize and understand. REMAKING EDEN is an essential primer for that tomorrow.

In Eden's Garden: Rethinking Sin and Evil in an Era of Scientific Promise, Richard Coleman examines the notion of sin in a contemporary world that values scientific and nonreligious modes of thought regarding human behavior. This work is not an anti-science polemic, but rather an argument to show how sin and evil can make sense to the nonreligious mind, and how it is valuable to make sense of such phenomena. Examining themes in religion, philosophy, and theology, it is ideal for use in the numerous courses which move across these disciplines.

Could a child have two genetic mothers? Will parents someday soon be able to choose not only the physical characteristics of their children-to-be, but their personalities and talents as well? Will genetic enhancement ultimately lead to a split in the human species?In this brilliant, provocative, and necessary book, Lee M. Silver takes a cautiously optimistic look at the scientific advances that will allow us to engineer life in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago--indeed, in ways that go far beyond cloning. In clear, engaging, and accessible prose, Silver demystifies the science behind a myriad of thrilling and frightening new possibilities, in a book that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the hopes and dilemmas of the American family in the twenty-first century.

Stem cell research, genetically modified crops, animals developed with personalized human organs for transplantation, and other previously inconceivable biotech applications could increase the quality of all human lives and maximize the health of the biosphere. But ironically, as the science becomes more precise and transparent, it also becomes more contentious. In Challenging Nature, Silver argues that although they seem to have little in common, Christian fundamentalists opposed to embryo research and New Age organic food devotees are both driven by a deeply rooted fear that biotechnology—in some guise—challenges the sovereignty of a higher or deeper transcendent authority. In the short term, Silver writes, Eastern spiritual traditions will give Asian countries a research advantage. But over the millennia, human nature may have the potential to remake Mother Nature in the image of an idealized world.

This revised edition of Carolyn Merchant’s classic Reinventing Eden has been updated with a new foreword and afterword. Visionary quests to return to the Garden of Eden have shaped Western Culture. This book traces the idea of rebuilding the primeval garden from its origins to its latest incarnations and offers a bold new way to think about the earth.