Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs by Leon Kass, M.D. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs. By LEON KAss, M.D. New York: Free Press, 1986. Pp. 370 + xiv; $23.50. 'l'he capacities of modern science and medicine to cure, remedy and palliate diseases and their abilities to manipu'ate physical, animate nature are well known. This has been seen most recently in the power of modern science and medicine to generate life in a laboratory setting, significantly alter the genetic character of human beings and to generate human life without coition. The new science and medicine have developed new forms of human generation: in vitro fertilization, surrogate parenting, gene splicing, sperm banks, suppression of undesirable genes, freezing of human embryos and trait selection. Dr. Leon Kass, M.D., notes that we are probably on the verge of asexual reproduction of higher animals, for mice can now be generated to the blastocyst stage. In this important new book, Dr. Kass urges that these new technologies be adopted with caution and counsels serious consideration of the wider "risks " that are involved in the use of these technologies. Caution is needed because we are at the point where we can create man in our image through these technologies, and Dr. Kass wonders if we have the wisdom to do this without seriously harming ourselves. He points out that we are marching down the road to the brave new world and this road has been paved with sentimentality and love. Thousands have not made it to this world because of abortion and it now appears that thousands of elderly will not make it to the brave new world because of the eugenic practices that this new technology could spawn. Kass objects that producing babies in the laboratory setting is dehumanizing as it divorces generation from lovemaking and the human clements that are not accidental, but essential to human generation and rearing. In his mind, we have paid a high price to conquer nature, and we might have to pay a higher one, for new technologies and medicine are now striking at the very core of our human relationships, existence and generation. The new science and medicine are challenging the biological foundations of marriage and the family, and Kass wonders whether we should allow this to happen. With the rise of techniques to generate and alter human life in the laboratory, we are on a slippery slope, in Kass's mind. He believes that there are slippery slopes, and he argues that the slippery slope principle is valid because a principle that validates one form of action can often be used to validate other actions. Kass is as concerned with principles as 458 BOOK REVIEWS 459 he is with the morality of particular actions. The new scientific and medical techniques are now divorcing generation from sexuality, are undermining the natural foundations for marriage and the family, and are eliminating human generation from the confines of our human bodies. Kass believes that this is particularly dangerous because our identities are bound up with our families and ancestry, and the new forms of generation are challenging our very identities. Rather than being partially defined by our ancestry, it is quite likely in the future that many will be partially defined by the scientists or processes involved the their laboratory generation. He argues that much depends on biological parenting: family, marriage, ancestry, our deep sense of human, personal and familial honor. Kass wonders if the desire that parents have for children gives them a right to use these new laboratory methods of procreation. He objects to experimentation on laboratory generated embryos by invoking Paul Ramsey's principle that there should be no experimentation on incompetent patients if the subject derives no therapeutic benefit from the experiment. Kass believes that embryonic human life is protectable humanity and he objects to discarding laboratory generated blastocysts at later stages. He reminds us that Dr. Edwards, who was responsible for the in vitro birth of Louise Brown, exclaimed of her " She was beautiful then and she is beautiful now!" Discarding embryos is not identical to abortion because these embryos are wanted while fetuses are usually unwanted . This is eugenic killing of nascent life, and is...