Given the profound moral-ethical controversies regarding the use of new biotechnologies in
medical research and treatment such as embryonic research and cloning this book sheds new
light on the role of religious organizations and actors in influencing the bio-political
debates and decision-making processes. Further it analyzes the ways in which religious
traditions and actors formulate their bio-ethical positions and which rationales they use to
validate their positions. The book offers a range of case studies on fourteen Western
democracies highlighting the bio-ethical and political debates over human stem cell research
therapeutic and reproductive cloning and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. The contributing
authors illustrate the ways in which national political landscapes and actors from diverse and
often fragmented moral communities with widely varying moral stances premises and commitments
formulate their bio-ethical positions and seek to influence political decisions.
