1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910827308203321

Autore

Lynch John (John Alexander), <1976->

Titolo

What are stem cells? : definitions at the intersection of science and politics / / John Lynch

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Tuscaloosa, : University of Alabama Press, c2011

ISBN

0-8173-8576-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (194 p.)

Collana

Rhetoric, culture, and social critique

Disciplina

616/.02774

Soggetti

Stem cells

Reasoning

Stem cells - Social aspects

Stem cells - Moral and ethical aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Acknowledgments; 1. Science-Based Controversies and Idioms of Public Argument; 2. Timely and Powerful: Defining Stem Cells through Appeals to Application; 3. Abortion and the Embryo: Right-to-Life Arguments as a Source for Rhetorical Invention; 4. Blastocysts, Spare Embryos, and Embryo Adoption: Redefining the Beginnings of Human Life; 5. Power, Potency, and Plasticity: Hierarchies of Stem Cells and Their Inherent Ambiguities; 6. Stalemate and the Idioms of Science-Based Controversy: George W. Bush's Manichean Idiom and Barack Obama's Return to a Scientistic Idiom

7. Scientistic and Manichean Idioms of Public ArgumentNotes; Works Cited; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In recent years political, religious, and scientific communities have engaged in an ethical debate regarding the development of and research on embryonic stem cells. Does the manipulation of embryonic stem cells destroy human life? Or do limitations imposed on stem cell research harm patients who might otherwise benefit?   John Lynch's What Are Stem Cells? identifies the moral stalemate between the rights of the embryo and the rights of the patient and uses it as the framework for a larger discussion about the role of definitions as a key rhetorical strategy i