Response to the Reviews of Challenging Nature by Evelyne Shuster and Susan Blackmore

I first met Lee Silver in 1998 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, for a forum occasioned by the release of his book Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World. We did not agree on much. For example, Silver wanted biotechnology to take charge of human reproduction and to fashion new humans. He called for a new science of 'reprogenetics', not old-fashioned parents, to 'remake Eden' by fabricating better babies (p. 9). And while praising 'fertility doctors' and their 'laborintensive[ness]' in assisted reproduction, he chose to remain silent on women's labor in childbirth. I recall a profound disconnect. Silver told us how much he cherished his family, his wife and three children, 'all three created the old fashioned way'. His untamed life with his family was the core of his world, but he wanted something different for everyone else. That disconnect between being an enjoyer of life's 'natural' pleasure, and being an hubristic utopian promoter of science and biotechnology continues and even intensifies in Silver's Challenging Nature: the Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life

Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · History