Liberation Biology Reviewed

Brainwash, an online publication of America's Future Foundation, has a review of Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey's Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution. A snippet:

As Bailey documents, biotechnology offers incredible possibilities for alleviating human suffering. Soon, we may be able to cure devastating genetic diseases, treat degenerative illnesses like Alzheimer's, help the world's poor to grow enough food to feed themselves, perform organ and tissue transplants without the risk of rejection, and prevent the spread of epidemics. Failing to pursue those treatments would be just as immoral as allowing children to die from smallpox. Bailey shows that, far from undermining human dignity, biotechnology will expand the options available to individuals and "enable people who would otherwise be 'dehumanized' by disease, disability, or death to survive and flourish."

If anything can be said to be the essence of humanity, it is that we work to liberate ourselves from biological constraints. From fire to agriculture to antibiotics, the history of our species has been a story of technology. Refusing to push forward with biotechnology wouldn't protect human nature--it would defy it.

Whole thing here.

More on Lib Bio, including purchase info, here.

Update: And here's another new review from The Indianapolis Star.