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The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering Paperback – September 30, 2009

by Michael J. Sandel (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 125 ratings
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“Sandel explores a paramount question of our era: how to extend the power and promise of biomedical science to overcome debility without compromising our humanity. His arguments are acute and penetrating, melding sound logic with compassion.”
―Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think

Breakthroughs in genetics present us with a promise and a predicament. The promise is that we will soon be able to treat and prevent a host of debilitating diseases. The predicament is that our newfound genetic knowledge may enable us to manipulate our nature―to enhance our genetic traits and those of our children. Although most people find at least some forms of genetic engineering disquieting, it is not easy to articulate why. What is wrong with re-engineering our nature?

The Case against Perfection explores these and other moral quandaries connected with the quest to perfect ourselves and our children. Michael Sandel argues that the pursuit of perfection is flawed for reasons that go beyond safety and fairness. The drive to enhance human nature through genetic technologies is objectionable because it represents a bid for mastery and dominion that fails to appreciate the gifted character of human powers and achievements. Carrying us beyond familiar terms of political discourse, this book contends that the genetic revolution will change the way philosophers discuss ethics and will force spiritual questions back onto the political agenda.

In order to grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions largely lost from view in the modern world. Since these questions verge on theology, modern philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them. But our new powers of biotechnology make these questions unavoidable. Addressing them is the task of this book, by one of America’s preeminent moral and political thinkers.

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  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    September 30, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    4.3 x 0.6 x 7.1 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780674036383
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0674036383
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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“The Case against Perfection by Michael Sandel is a brief, concise, and dazzling argument by one of America’s foremost moral and political thinkers that brings you up to speed on the core ethical issues informing current debates about genetic engineering and stem cell research.”―Gabriel Gbadamosi, BBC Radio

“Sandel’s arguments ultimately speak to our gut-level qualms about enhancement; and his aim in fact is to give these qualms a coherent moral basis… His book in the end is more a lyrical plea for reverence and humility than a lawyer’s watertight ‘case against.’… The ethicist Michael Sandel wants us at least to think about the line [between health and enhancement], however imaginary―and to think about where, in a hyper-competitive world, re-engineering our natures will ultimately lead.”―Michele Pridmore-Brown, Times Literary Supplement

“Michael Sandel‘s dive into the sea of genetic engineering provides a great tasty gulp of contemporary ethical controversy. Quickly read, The Case against Perfection is nonetheless dense with challenging quandaries, loaded with moral puzzles and filled with facts. An inveterate highlighter, I underlined half the book.”―John F. Kavanaugh, America

“In the future, genetic manipulation of embryos is expected to have the potential to go beyond the treatment of diseases to improvements: children who are taller, more athletic, and have higher IQs… In The Case against Perfection, Michael Sandel argues that the unease many people feel about such manipulations have a basis in reason… This beautifully crafted little book…quickly and clearly lays out the key issues at stake.”―Gregory M. Lamb, Christian Science Monitor

“Given the vast gulf between progressive and conservative thinking, the time is ripe for a philosopher to take on the issues of biotechnology. And in The Case against Perfection Harvard’s Michael Sandel does just that, attempting to develop a new position on biotechnology, one that, like Sandel himself, is not easily identified as either left or right. A former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, Sandel is uniquely well suited for this task, and to challenge the left to get its bearings on the brave new biology… Sandel poses an important challenge to contemporary progressives who have failed to grasp the importance of the emerging biopolitics.”―Jonathan Moreno, Democracy

“In a highly readable, wise and little book titled The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, Michael Sandel argues that parents’ quest to create the ideal child reflects a drive for mastery and domination over life.”―Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun

“Anyone who thinks our culture is too competitive and consumer-driven should find that Sandel’s diagnosis resonates. He provides not only a warning about the shape of the future, but equally an indictment of―or at least a call to examine―our individual moral lives and our contemporary social values. Those who support the practice of genetic enhancement argue that the technology is not substantially different from other forms of ‘enhancement’ we use to improve our lives and the lives of our children. Sandel agrees, but he does not base his argument on any particular distinction about the means of enhancement; rather he is deeply concerned about the underlying impetus of mastery and dominion.”―Debra Greenfield, Bioethics Forum

“For many years I have been ambivalent about reproductive innovations, from surrogate gestation to preimplantation screening for gender selection. After reading Sandel’s exceedingly elegant little book, The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, I could finally put satisfactory names to core values implicit in my hesitation: acceptance and solidarity. I encountered Sandel’s book as a participant in the intellectual discourse about parenting. But the book’s greatest value to me was its validation of the commitments of solidarity expressed in my volunteer work on behalf of poor mothers and of acceptance implicit in my determination to mother a child with catastrophic mental illness.”―Anita L. Allen, Chronicle of Higher Education

“[Sandel] makes the compelling case that gentic engineering to gain advantage for ourselves and our children is deeply disempowering, because it turns us away from the communal good, toward self-centered striving.”―Anne Harding, The Lancet

“[A] graceful and intelligent new book.”―Carl Elliott, New England Journal of Medicine

“Nobody’s perfect, and Mr. Sandel’s book makes an instructive and engaging case that that nobody should be.”―Yuval Levin, New York Sun

“In this short and provocative treatise, Sandel, who is professor of government at Harvard and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, takes on the question of why certain kinds of newly available genetic technologies make us uneasy…[his] book reminds us that the proper starting point for bioethics is not, ‘what should we do?’ but rather, ‘what kind of society do we want?’ And ‘what kind of people are we?’”―Faith McLellan, The Scientist

“An illuminating ethical analysis of stem-cell research concludes this stellar work of public philosophy.”―Ray Olson, Booklist

“This rather small book presents, in very succinct fashion, many of the arguments against proposals to bioengineer human life. Sandel…argues with care and clarity not only against the more extreme cases such as human cloning, but also against the more modest proposals of gene modification. As the title suggests, the arguments are almost exclusively negative, although Sandel’s most interesting and creative suggestion is the idea that such human bioengineering will cause human beings to lose the sense of life as a ‘gift,’ and that this will have a serious morally negative effect upon the entire social structure.”―P. A. Streveler, Choice

“Sandel explores a paramount question of our era: how to extend the power and promise of biomedical science to overcome debility without compromising our humanity. His arguments are acute and penetrating, melding sound logic with compassion. We emerge from this book feeling edified and inspired.”―Jerome Groopman, Harvard Medical School, author of How Doctors Think

“We live in a world, says Michael Sandel, where ‘science moves faster than moral understanding.’ But thanks to Sandel, moral understanding is catching up. Cloning, stem cell research, performance-enhancing drugs, pills that make you stronger or taller: if some scientific development bothers you, but you can’t explain why, Michael Sandel will help you to figure out why you’re troubled. And then he’ll tell you whether you should be.”―Michael Kinsley

About the Author

Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of The Tyranny of Merit. His freely available online course “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” has been viewed by tens of millions of people around the world.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0674036387
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; 1st edition (September 30, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780674036383
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674036383
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.3 x 0.6 x 7.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 125 ratings

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Michael J. Sandel

Michael J. Sandel

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Michael Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard University. He has been described as a “rock-star moralist” (Newsweek) and “the world’s most influential living philosopher.” (New Statesman) Sandel’s books--on justice, ethics, democracy, and markets--have been translated into more than 30 languages. His legendary course “Justice” was the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and has been viewed by tens of millions. His BBC series “The Global Philosopher” explores the ethical issues lying behind the headlines with participants from around the world.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
125 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

A reader reader
5.0 out of 5 stars A new moral vision begins to take shape...
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2007
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This is a small but very impressive book: timely, interesting, original, extremely well informed, very clearly written, organized, and argued, and largely persuasive. Reading it (in two sittings) was like listening to the two best applied ethics lectures I've ever heard (and I've heard lots). I strongly recommend this book.

It seemed to me, nonetheless, that one of the main moral criteria Sandel relies on got a bit blurred by the end. The distinction between manipulative molding (bad) and respectful beholding (good) seems to me to draw the line of moral permissibility too far into passivity territory. It'd be better to recognize, as Sandel does in the nice appendix on the stem cell debate, that there are molding beholdings or respectful manipulations, i.e., active interventions that respect and help develop the intrinsic capacitites at issue. But if the mold/behold dichotomy blurs that way, it would seem to undermine the hard and original line Sandel takes against bioengineering in the main part of the book. It would suggest, instead, that we could indeed allow some forms of genetic enhancement so long as they respect the intrinsic excellences we decide matter most. (How we are to decide that is a tricky issue broached but not delved into in this book.) If this is right, however, it would put Sandel much closer to the liberal eugenicists he criticizes.

In the end, I think Sandel's book is great: insightful, thought-provoking, and largely persuasive. Sandel articulates an original and deeply humane vision that ethicists, politicians, and other thinking citizens very much need to hear -- and then develop further. (Interestingly, Sandel's ethical vision seems surprisingly close to the later Heidegger in several crucial respects; the book suggests that he was influenced by a Heideggerian theologian and some brilliant undergraduate at Harvard, but I'd guess there's more to it than that.)
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William
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2022
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Brief, but excellent
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Curt
4.0 out of 5 stars good presentation of issues
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2016
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Good, and well organized. So well organized that I'll use his organization to refute him point by point.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Book is in perfect condition as expected
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2021
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Book is in perfect condition as expected.
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Marcus
5.0 out of 5 stars Means Matter
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2014
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This review is about the kindle edition. Sandel points in plain and simple language the flaws one finds in a doctrine that allows whatever means necessary to obtain one chosen end. The arbitrary distribution of healthy and talents, the book argues, cannot be completely overode by human agency. Its a well written essay. The kindle book lacks some important features. One must navigate to the end of the book, for example, in order to read the footnotes.
3 people found this helpful
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TheComic
3.0 out of 5 stars short read
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2011
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Took this book for a class in Political Science, and happen to be a fan of Sandel after reading other work by him. I found this book similar to the way he does a lot of his arguments, meaning that he shows various sides and arguments to things he is not in favor of and never really expresses a straight out view. Though this book continues that process and could be quite redundant at times, all in all it was a good read and could really make someone wonder if eventually we will be separated between the people who have and the ones that do not.
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Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read.
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2015
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Sandel is a great philosopher, He challenges the notions and in the same instance make you come up with your own 'morals' when it comes to genetic engineering. I had to buy this book for a course but read it 4 times since.
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retired lawyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2020
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An interesting view on a tough topic
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Top reviews from other countries

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M
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book but bad epilogue
Reviewed in India on September 30, 2022
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I would have rated this as 5 stars if not for the epilogue ("Embryo Ethics: The Stem Cell Debate") where Sandel seems to nullify his entire "case against perfection." I agreed with everything he said until that point. He did make very interesting arguments in favour of embryonic stem cell research(ESCR) though. It's just that he's mistaken. To counter his points in the epilogue, one needs to do some homework. Klusendorf's "The Cases for Life" has a section on the topic of ESCR which is good at giving further context and also counter-points. For direct responses to Sandel, Robert P. George's & Patrick Lee's paper "Embryonic human persons. Talking Point on morality and human embryo research" is a great resource. It has a section where they directly respond to Sandel's arguments.

Minus the epilogue, this is a really great book
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M
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book but bad epilogue
Reviewed in India on September 30, 2022
I would have rated this as 5 stars if not for the epilogue ("Embryo Ethics: The Stem Cell Debate") where Sandel seems to nullify his entire "case against perfection." I agreed with everything he said until that point. He did make very interesting arguments in favour of embryonic stem cell research(ESCR) though. It's just that he's mistaken. To counter his points in the epilogue, one needs to do some homework. Klusendorf's "The Cases for Life" has a section on the topic of ESCR which is good at giving further context and also counter-points. For direct responses to Sandel, Robert P. George's & Patrick Lee's paper "Embryonic human persons. Talking Point on morality and human embryo research" is a great resource. It has a section where they directly respond to Sandel's arguments.

Minus the epilogue, this is a really great book
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sam soto
3.0 out of 5 stars but otherwise a good learning source
Reviewed in Canada on November 8, 2017
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a bit too high up in wording . . . but otherwise a good learning source.
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Felipe
5.0 out of 5 stars Sandel
Reviewed in Brazil on July 12, 2015
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"To grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions largely lost from view in the modern world - questions about the moral status of nature, and about the proper stance of human beings toward the given world. Since these questions verge on theology, modern philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them. But our new power of biotechnology make them unavoidable. "

"Honoring the integrity of a sport means more than playing by the rules, or enforcing their. It means writing the rules in a way that honors the excellences central to the game and rewards the skills of those who play it best."

"Like all distinctions, the line between therapy and enhancement blurs at the edges."

"Accepting love, without transforming love, slides into indulgence and finally neglect. Transforming love, without accepting love, badgers and finally rejects. May finds in these competing impulses a parallel with modern science; it, too, enganges us in beholding the given world, studying and savoring it, and also molding the world, transforming and perfecting it."

"The demand for performance and perfection animates the impulse to rail against the given. It is the deepest source of the moral trouble with enhancement."

"The question, liberals insist, is whether the parental intervention, be it eugenic or environmental, undermines the child's freedom to choose her own life plan."

"This takes us back to the notion of giftedness. Even if it does not harm the child or impair its autonomy, eugenic parenting is objectionable because it expresses and entrenches a certain stance toward the world - a stance of mastery and dominion that fails to appreciate the gifted character of human powers and achievements, and misses the part of freedom that consists in a persisting negotiation with the given."

"I am suggesting instead that the moral stakes in the enhancement debate are not fully captured by the familiar categories of autonomy and rights, on the one hand, and the calculation of costs and benefits, on the other. My concern with enhancement is not as individual vice but as habit of mind and way of being."

Mais um excelente livro do Michael Sandel. Já deixa sua opinião do assunto clara na dedicatória do livro "aos meus filhos, perfeitos como são".
Discute sobre se mudanças medicinais e aprimoramentos, feitos por meio de objetos, remédios, cirurgias e finalmente mudança genética. Quais as diferenças morais?
Devemos fazer todo o possivel para oferecer o melhor futuro aos nossos filhos, isso incluiria engenharia genética, para deixá-los mais altos, inteligentes, fortes, etc?
E quanto à casais que escolhem os óvulos e espermatozoides para FIV (fertilização in vitro)? Querem um doador com X características.
Porque é questionável o casal de surdos que desejou (e conseguiu) doadores com 3 gerações de surdos, pois queriam que o filho fosse parte da mesma "comunidade" que eles - não consideram a surdez uma deficiência, e sim um traço de identidade - do casal que quer doadores com QI acima de X, altura, cor dos olhos e etc?
E quanto à escolher o sexo antes do nascimento, se tal procedimento for seguro e anterior à concepção, qual a objeção? E escolher outros traços genéticos? Evitar a trissomias do 21 é tão correto quanto desejar um dom musical?
A questão dos super-pais (hyperparenting) que querem um controle cada vez maior sobre a vida dos filhos, que chegam a criar um design do filho, quão diferente, ou qual a diferença moral, entre uma mudança genética e uma ambiental, como forçar aulas de piano desde cedo, vitaminas, alimentação e etc?

Ainda há um capítulo sobre estudos de célula tronco. Aonde ou quando um embrião passa a ser um ser humano. O que o autor propõe é quem um embrião tem mais valor que um ser inanimado, e merece respeito, mas não tanto quanto uma criança. Assim como é difícil definir com quantos fios de cabelo uma cabeça passa a ser careca. "Sorites paradox" - quando um montão passa a ser um montão.
Se um embrião vale tanto quanto uma vida humana, a situação hipotética de salvar vinte embriões no lugar de uma criança deveria ser natural.

Maravilhoso o livro, as histórias, os exemplos. Traz o debate para um nível bastante profundo, argumenta bem, gera boas perguntas.
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Beatriz
5.0 out of 5 stars BGS
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2012
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My husband is happy with it and it is perfect for his kindle because he can read the book everywhere and the book can not be damage.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars おすすめ！
Reviewed in Japan on January 12, 2013
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理解しやすい英語で書かれていて、内容も非常に興味深いです！
おススメします
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