Most Popular Books by John Harris

Presents images of children from works of art in the J. Paul Getty Museum, with accompanying whimsical, rhyming text.

An alphabet book illustrated with details taken from paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Explores issues involved in gifted programs for minority students such as curriculum and instruction, ethics, counseling, family involvement, and several other concerns, and includes case studies, scenarios, and sample activities.

The sleepy red-roofed Italian island of Anapoli. Here, Tom Patch, an easy-going British artist discards his mistress for new love Cecilia. The Mayor basks in the sun, listening to goat bells and the rasp of mandolins. But high above hangs a malevolent volcano; a terrible destructive power seething below its crust. And it is about to blow.

The True Survivors is a fictional ethnography about an Anthropologist that travels into the future and ends up studying the first post-apocalyptic state-level society after the fall of man king. The books features photographs of one-of-a-kind metalwork, tools, artwork, and jewelry created by author John Harris to show the material culture of the Lamellain people.

Herakles was one of the greatest of all Greek heroes, and his exploits have been celebrated in paintings, songs, poetry, and sculpture. This one-of-a-kind account of the great mythological hero includes a helpful map and a pronunciation guide for those sometimes hard-to-pronounce classical names. Full color.

This tense, unusual novel begins with the seemingly divine reappearance of a wooden cross once belonging to a sixth-century bishop. The vision emerges from the depths of an Italian lake, and a menacing local antagonism is subsequently stirred. But what can the cross mean?

Since the birth of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1977, we have seen truly remarkable advances in biotechnology. We can now screen the fetus for Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and a wide range of genetic disorders. We can rearrange genes in DNA chains and redirect the evolution of species. We can record an individual's genetic fingerprint. And we can potentially insert genes into human DNA that will produce physical warning signs of cancer, allowing early detection. In fact, biotechnology has progressed to such a point that virtually any kind of genetic manipulation, if not already possible, is just around the corner. But these breakthroughs also raise serious ethical and moral dilemmas that we are only now beginning to confront. In Wonderwoman and Superman, noted medical ethicist John Harris offers the first thorough analysis of the moral dilemmas created by the revolution in molecular biology. Covering a wide array of recent innovations, Harris discusses, for example, the moral decisions involved and the consequences of creating egg and embryo banks. Who should be allowed to use such resources? Should recipients be screened? Should such banks be open for public or private use? And does it cheapen life to make embryos available for sale? In another chapter, Harris examines the question of conceiving children chiefly for organ donation, focusing on the recent case of a woman who wanted to have a second child to provide a bone marrow donor for her first child sick with leukemia (she intended to abort the fetus if its bone marrow did not genetically match that of her living child). In this case, the medical staff had to decide whether they should perform in-vitro fertilization, knowing that the mother did not satisfy the clinic's criteria (there was no father), and also knowing the potential for abortion. Discussing the ethics of the mother's choice and the clinic's choice, Harris asks whether it is morally correct to create a child as an organ donor, whether the future child would suffer, whether it is worth any suffering to be born, and who has the right to weigh the various factors (both moral and physiological) involved in making these decisions. Delving into a multitude of issues such as when life begins, when suffering is needless, and whether we should play God, Wonderwoman and Superman provides not only a thought-provoking inquiry into the potential and actual ethical dilemmas created by the many advances in biotechnology, but challenges us to learn to choose responsibly and to face the moral implications of the choices that confront us.