Untangling Twinning
eBook - ePub

Untangling Twinning

What Science Tells Us about the Nature of Human Embryos

  1. 176 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Untangling Twinning

What Science Tells Us about the Nature of Human Embryos

About this book

Scientists and philosophers have long struggled to answer the questions of when human life begins and when human life has inherent value. The phenomenon of identical (monozygotic) twinning presents a significant challenge to the view that human life and human personhood begin at conception. The fact that a single embryo can split to generate two (or more) genetically identical embryos seems to defy the notion that prior to splitting an embryo can be a single human individual. In Untangling Twinning, Maureen Condic looks at the questions raised by human twinning based on a unique synthesis of molecular developmental biology and Aristotelian philosophy. She begins with a brief historical analysis of the current scientific perspective on the embryo and proceeds to address the major philosophic and scientific concerns regarding human twinning and embryo fusion: Is the embryo one human or two (or even more)? Does the original embryo die, and if not, which of the twins is the original? Who are the parents of the twins? What do twins, chimeras, cloning, and asexual reproduction in humans mean? And what does the science of human embryology say about human ensoulment, human individuality, and human value? Condic's original approach makes a unique contribution to the discussion of human value and human individuality, and offers a clear, evidence-based resolution to questions raised by human twinning. The book is written for students and scholars of bioethics, scientists, theologians, and attorneys who are involved in questions surrounding the human embryo.

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Yes, you can access Untangling Twinning by Maureen L. Condic in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Ethics in Medicine. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Title
  2. Copyrights
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. List of Illustrations
  6. List of Tables
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Note on Presentation of Citations in the Text
  9. Introduction: Human Embryos and Human Individuals
  10. 1 When Does Human Life Begin?
  11. 2 Totipotency
  12. 3 What Is an Embryo?
  13. 4 Twinning and the Beginning of Human Life
  14. 5 Philosophical Concerns regarding Twinning
  15. 6 Philosophical Concerns Raised by Human Chimerism
  16. 7 Why Scientists Are Confused about Embryos
  17. 8 The Embryo in a Larger Context
  18. Conclusion
  19. Glossary
  20. Appendix: Quotations from the Scientific Literature
  21. Notes
  22. Bibliography
  23. Index