The Global Dynamics of Regenerative Medicine


Book Description

Regenerative medicine, encompassing stem cells and tissue engineering, has attracted huge interest within commercial, clinical and government circles, and promises to change medicine itself. This book provides the first detailed examination and critical assessment of the field to be made by social science.




Embryos under the Microscope


Book Description

Too tiny to see with the naked eye, the human embryo was just a hypothesis until the microscope made observation of embryonic development possible. This changed forever our view of the minuscule cluster of cells that looms large in questions about the meaning of life. Embryos under the Microscope examines how our scientific understanding of the embryo has evolved from the earliest speculations of natural philosophers to today’s biological engineering, with its many prospects for life-enhancing therapies. Jane Maienschein shows that research on embryos has always revealed possibilities that appear promising to some but deeply frightening to others, and she makes a persuasive case that public understanding must be informed by up-to-date scientific findings. Direct observation of embryos greatly expanded knowledge but also led to disagreements over what investigators were seeing. Biologists confirmed that embryos are living organisms undergoing rapid change and are not in any sense functioning persons. They do not feel pain or have any capacity to think until very late stages of fetal development. New information about DNA led to discoveries about embryonic regulation of genetic inheritance, as well as evolutionary relationships among species. Scientists have learned how to manipulate embryos in the lab, taking them apart, reconstructing them, and even synthesizing—practically from scratch—cells, body parts, and maybe someday entire embryos. Showing how we have learned what we now know about the biology of embryos, Maienschein changes our view of what it means to be alive.




Free to Serve


Book Description

What do Hobby Lobby, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Wheaton College, World Vision, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the University of Notre Dame have in common? All are faith-based organizations that have faced pressure to act in ways contrary to their religious beliefs. In this book, two policy experts show how faith-based groups--those active in the educational, healthcare, international aid and development, and social service fields--can defend their ability to follow their religiously based beliefs without having to jettison the very faith and faith-based practices that led them to provide services to those in need. They present a pluralist vision for religious freedom for faith-based organizations of all religious traditions. The book includes case studies that document the challenges faith-based organizations face to freely follow the practices of their religious traditions and analyzes these threats as originating in a common, yet erroneous, set of assumptions and attitudes prevalent in American society. The book also includes responses by diverse voices--an Orthodox Jew, a Roman Catholic, two evangelicals, two Islamic leaders, and an unbeliever who is a religious-freedom advocate--underscoring the importance of religious freedom for faith-based organizations.




Shadowbosses


Book Description

SHADOWBOSSES reads like an organized crime novel, but it's actually a true story of how labor unions are infiltrating our government and corrupting our political process. This compelling and insightful book exposes how unions have organized federal, state, and local government employees without their consent, and how government employee unions are now a threat to our workers' freedoms, our free and fair elections, and even our American way of life. And, Mallory Factor reveals what's coming next: how unions are targeting millions of Americans--maybe even you--for forced unionization so that unions can collect billions more in forced dues and exert an even greater influence over American politics. A chilling expose, SHADOWBOSSES is also a call to citizen action against those who really hold power in America today.




Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine


Book Description

This book is a unique guide to emerging stem cell technologies and the opportunities for their commercialisation. It provides in-depth analyses of the science, business, legal, and financing fundamentals of stem cell technologies, offering a holistic assessment of this emerging and dynamic segment of the field of regenerative medicine. • Reviews the very latest advances in the technology and business of stem cells used for therapy, research, and diagnostics • Identifies key challenges to the commercialisation of stem cell technology and avenues to overcome problems in the pipeline • Written by an expert team with extensive experience in the business, basic and applied science of stem cell research This comprehensive volume is essential reading for researchers in cell biology, biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering, including scientists and professionals, looking to enter commercial biotechnology fields.







The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law


Book Description

Like many beliefs, religious views matter across an individual's life and the life cycle of a family - from birth to marriage, through child-rearing, and, eventually, death. This volume examines clashes over religious liberty within the personal realm of the family. Against swirling religious beliefs, secular values, and legal regulation, this volume offers a forward-looking examination of tensions between religious freedom and the state's protective function. Contributors unpack some of the Court's recent decisions and explain how they set the stage for ongoing disputes. They evaluate religious claims around birth control, circumcision, modesty, religious education, marriage, polygamy, shared parenting, corporal punishment, faith healing, divorce, and the end of life. Authors span legislators, attorneys, academics, journalists, ministers, physicians, child advocates, and representatives of minority faiths. The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law begins an overdue conversation on questions dividing the nation.




Stem Cell Research


Book Description

Stem Cell Research takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic of human embryonic stem cell research, starting with the breakthrough discovery up through the present day controversy. The book invites the reader to join the conversation by providing a well balanced approach to many of the issues surrounding the development of this controversial scientific field. It includes the thoughts and experiences of scientists, journalists and ethicists as it tried to approach the topic through a variety of different academic disciplines. The book will help the non-scientist understand the biology, research regulations and funding; and simultaneously it will help the scientist better comprehend the full spectrum of ethical, religious, and policy debates.




Unraveled


Book Description

Six years after its enactment, Obamacare remains one of the most controversial, divisive, and enduring political issues in America. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare (2013), Josh Blackman argues that, to implement the law, President Obama has broken promises about cancelled insurance policies, exceeded the traditional bounds of executive power, and infringed on religious liberty. At the same time, conservative opponents have stopped at nothing to unravel Obamacare, including a three-week government shutdown, four Supreme Court cases, and fifty repeal votes. This legal thriller provides the definitive account of the battle to stop Obamacare from being 'woven into the fabric of America'. Unraveled is essential reading to understand the future of the Affordable Care Act in America's gridlocked government in 2016, and beyond.




Guide to the White House Staff


Book Description

Guide to the White House Staff is an insightful new work examining the evolution and current role of the White House staff. It provides a study of executive-legislative relations, organizational behavior, policy making, and White House–cabinet relations. The work also makes an important contribution to the study of public administration for researchers seeking to understand the inner workings of the White House. In eight thematically arranged chapters, Guide to the White House Staff: Reviews the early members of the White House staff and details the need, statutory authorization, and funding for staff expansion. Addresses the creation of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and a formal White House staff in 1939. Explores the statutes, executive orders, and succession of reorganization plans that shaped and refined the EOP. Traces the evolution of White House staff from FDR to Obama and the specialization of staff across policy and political units. Explores how presidential transitions have operated since Eisenhower created the position of chief of staff. Explains the expansion of presidential in-house policymaking structures, beginning with national security and continuing with economic and domestic policy. Covers the exodus of staff and the roles remaining staff played during the second terms of presidents. Examines the post–White House careers of staff. Guide to the White House Staff also provides easily accessible biographies of key White House staff members who served the presidencies of Richard M. Nixon through George W. Bush. This valuable new reference will find a home in collections supporting research on the American presidency, public policy, and public administration.