Francis Fukuyama has a new book, entitled "Beyond Bioethics: A Proposal for Modernizing the Regulation of Human Biotechnologies".

He writes:

The title "Beyond Bioethics" is not meant to downplay the importance of ethical issues, but rather to suggest we need rules now with real enforcement power. The entire field of bioethics was created back in the 1970s at least in part to relieve pressure on the scientific community for overt regulation; they could point to toothless bioethics committees and say that they were taking account of ethical issues, without having to face real limits on research. We are saying that the time for this is past; that we need to proceed under socially agreed upon rules that ensure that future research respects the dominant ethical concerns of the broader democratic community.

This book is freely available as a downloadable PDF; just complete the "order" form at this site.

Biotech Governance Project