This book is a comprehensive, empirically-grounded exploration of the relationship between bioethics, culture, and the perspective of being affected. It provides a new outlook on how complex “bioethical” issues become questions of everyday life. The authors focus on two contexts, genetic testing and end-of-life care, to locate and demonstrate emerging themes of responsibility, such as self-responsibility, responsibility for kin, and the responsibility of society. Within these themes, the d...

Cool is a word of American English that has been integrated into the vocabulary of numerous languages around the globe. Today it is a term most often used in advertising trendy commodities, or, more generally, in promoting urban lifestyles in our postmodern age. But what is the history of the term “cool?" When has coolness come to be associated with certain modes of contemporary self-fashioning? On what grounds do certain nations claim a privilege to be recognized as “cool?" These are some...

Juxtaposing contributions from geneticists and anthropologists, this volume provides a contemporary overview of cousin marriage and what is happening at the interface of public policy, the management of genetic risk and changing cultural practices in the Middle East and in multi-ethnic Europe. It offers a cross-cultural exploration of practices of cousin marriage in the light of new genetic understanding of consanguineous marriage and its possible health risks. Overall, the volume presents...

Carrier testing of adults provides information about the risk of passing a genetic mutation to your children, leading to reproductive (and some say, eugenic) decisions. Excessive carrier screening may have adverse effects, but it can also prevent suffering and open up new reproductive options. Raz's study focuses on the interplay of community genetics (the medical organisation of carrier screening) and genetic alliances (networks of individuals at risk), exploring how 'ge...

Why do we need sleep? How much sleep is enough? What is sleep? What happens when we don't get enough? We spend about a third of our lives asleep - it plays a crucial role in our health and wellbeing. References to sleep abound in literature and art, and sleep has been recognized as fundamental to the human condition for thousands of years. Over the past century, our knowledge of how sleep occurs, what it does, and what happens to our health if we do not have enough has developed h...

This key textbook provides a firm grounding in theoretical and practical aspects of the study of sexual health for both undergraduates and post-graduates.

This book provides an introductory survey of various bioethical issues facing society from beginning of life issues to end of life issues, and several issues in between.

Why has breastfeeding re-asserted itself over the last twenty years, and why are the government, the scientific and medical communities, and so many mothers so invested in the idea? In Is Breast Best? Joan B. Wolf challenges the widespread belief that breastfeeding is medically superior to bottle-feeding. Despite the fact that breastfeeding has become the ultimate expression of maternal dedication, Wolf writes, the conviction that breastfeeding provides babies unique health benefits and th...

For centuries, medicine aimed to treat abnormalities. But today normality itself is open to medical modification. Equipped with a new molecular understanding of bodies and minds, and new techniques for manipulating basic life processes at the level of molecules, cells, and genes, medicine now seeks to manage human vital processes. The Politics of Life Itself offers a much-needed examination of recent developments in the life sciences and biomedicine that have led to the widespread...

With the world's population getting increasingly older, there has never been a more pressing need for the study of old age and ageing. An Introduction to Gerontology provides a wide-ranging introduction to this important topic. By assuming no prior expert knowledge and avoiding jargon, this book will guide students through all the main subjects in gerontology, covering both traditional areas, such as biological and social ageing, and more contemporary areas, such as technology, the arts an...

Childhood and teenage pregnancy continues to pose significant social and health concerns within the UK and beyond. It is an issue that has implications for individuals across a range of professions and disciplines.This book is written for nurses, midwives, doctors, social workers and teachers, as well as students of sexual and reproductive health and welfare.It highlights some of the issues faced by sexually active young people and those who work with them. It will also be useful to general r...

“[An] important book.… Heine’s vibrant writing makes it come alive with personal significance for every reader.”—Carol Dweck, author of MindsetScientists expect one billion people to have their genomes sequenced by 2025. Yet cultural psychologist Steven J. Heine argues that, in trying to know who we are and where we come from, we’re likely to completely misinterpret what’s “in our DNA.” Heine’s fresh, surprising conclusions about the promise, and limits, o...