A small peep into our brave new world.

[Guest guest]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p09s01-coop.html

 

 

Commentary > Opinion

from the May 14, 2004 edition

 

Rights of gene-altered kids, clones spill from TV plot - to reality

 

By Lori B. Andrews

 

CHICAGO – A new television series on CBS, " Century City, " portrays the

challenges facing lawyers in the year 2030: criminal cases about human cloning,

malpractice cases about genetic testing, and domestic disputes over uploading an

ex-lover's personality into electronic appliances.

While the plots sound like outrageous flights of fancy, they resemble current

legal controversies and highlight the need for action now to regulate our Brave

New World.

 

E-mail this story

I've seen firsthand the far-reaching impacts of new technologies. When Dolly the

sheep was cloned, the government of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, asked me

to help create a legal framework for cloning men (and only men). When adult

siblings publicly battled over one's decision to have their late father's head

placed in cryogenic storage, I was called for a legal opinion on the rights of

severed heads. When a fertility doctor refused to give back a woman's frozen

embryo, I handled the case, obtaining the return of her potential child. When

the federal government decided to finance the Human Genome Project, I headed the

national advisory commission on ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding

this scientific odyssey.

 

I'm hoping " Century City " will inspire people to demand appropriate legal

policies about the genetic technologies, reproductive technologies, and

nanotechnologies that are reshaping our lives. Congress is now considering

whether insurance companies may deny coverage to healthy women who carry a gene

believed linked to increased risk of breast cancer. Courts are determining

whether a couple can sue a sperm bank because their healthy baby was not as

attractive as they wished - and whether a girl born with a disability can sue

her parents for not aborting her when prenatal tests revealed the problem.

 

These profound questions affect us all. When you interview for a job, the

interviewer might offer you a cup of coffee. Should he be able test the saliva

you leave on the cup - and deny you a job based on your genes? What if Bill

Gates' barber took a hair follicle, cloned the Microsoft chairman (perhaps

making Bill Gates version 5.0, 6.1, 8.0) - and sued him for child support?

Current law provides little protection against such outrageous acts.

 

Although the cases in " Century City " are fictional, the disputes they portray

are almost upon us. Science fiction is rapidly becoming science fact, and novels

and TV shows can help us formulate policies.

 

When the United Nations was initiating its current debate on a potential treaty

to ban human reproductive cloning, the delegate from Brazil described how his

country stimulated a national discussion on the issue through a soap opera, " El

Clon. " The show asked such questions as, is it bigamy to marry your wife's

clone?

 

Ours will be the generation that decides crucial issues about the human future.

Should parents be able to buy height-enhancing genes for their embryos? Will

that be viewed as the moral equivalent of cheating in sports, or more like

signing your child up for private tennis lessons? And what about putting genes

in human embryos for traits people have never had before, such as the speed of a

cheetah? One scientist has proposed inserting the genes for photosynthesis into

a human embryo to create children who get their energy from the sun and don't

need to eat.

 

I asked my law students whether a person with plant or animal genes would still

be protected by the US Constitution. One replied, " If it walks like a man,

quacks like a man, and photosynthesizes like a man, it is a man. "

 

The very boundaries of what is human are being changed by technology. Judgments

about the legal rights and wrongs of new technologies shouldn't be left to

lawyers in 2030. We need to puzzle out the legal issues now before we find that

the technologies have created a world that we wouldn't want to inhabit.

 

• Lori B. Andrews is a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and chairs the

board of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future.

 

 

 

 

 

SBC - Internet access at a great low price.

 

 

[Guest guest]

The gene (map) is NOT the territory!!! That's why all of the *gene*

operations won't work. Has any one reported a totally sucessful out come?

I'd like to know about it. Nora G

 

 

-

" Frank " <califpacific

<alternative_medicine_forum >

Sunday, May 16, 2004 5:39 AM

A small peep into our " brave new

world " .

 

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p09s01-coop.html

 

 

Commentary > Opinion

from the May 14, 2004 edition

 

Rights of gene-altered kids, clones spill from TV plot - to reality

 

By Lori B. Andrews

 

CHICAGO - A new television series on CBS, " Century City, " portrays the

challenges facing lawyers in the year 2030: criminal cases about human

cloning, malpractice cases about genetic testing, and domestic disputes over

uploading an ex-lover's personality into electronic appliances.

While the plots sound like outrageous flights of fancy, they resemble

current legal controversies and highlight the need for action now to

regulate our Brave New World.

 

E-mail this story

I've seen firsthand the far-reaching impacts of new technologies. When Dolly

the sheep was cloned, the government of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates,

asked me to help create a legal framework for cloning men (and only men).

When adult siblings publicly battled over one's decision to have their late

father's head placed in cryogenic storage, I was called for a legal opinion

on the rights of severed heads. When a fertility doctor refused to give back

a woman's frozen embryo, I handled the case, obtaining the return of her

potential child. When the federal government decided to finance the Human

Genome Project, I headed the national advisory commission on ethical, legal,

and social issues surrounding this scientific odyssey.

 

I'm hoping " Century City " will inspire people to demand appropriate legal

policies about the genetic technologies, reproductive technologies, and

nanotechnologies that are reshaping our lives. Congress is now considering

whether insurance companies may deny coverage to healthy women who carry a

gene believed linked to increased risk of breast cancer. Courts are

determining whether a couple can sue a sperm bank because their healthy baby

was not as attractive as they wished - and whether a girl born with a

disability can sue her parents for not aborting her when prenatal tests

revealed the problem.

 

These profound questions affect us all. When you interview for a job, the

interviewer might offer you a cup of coffee. Should he be able test the

saliva you leave on the cup - and deny you a job based on your genes? What

if Bill Gates' barber took a hair follicle, cloned the Microsoft chairman

(perhaps making Bill Gates version 5.0, 6.1, 8.0) - and sued him for child

support? Current law provides little protection against such outrageous

acts.

 

Although the cases in " Century City " are fictional, the disputes they

portray are almost upon us. Science fiction is rapidly becoming science

fact, and novels and TV shows can help us formulate policies.

 

When the United Nations was initiating its current debate on a potential

treaty to ban human reproductive cloning, the delegate from Brazil described

how his country stimulated a national discussion on the issue through a soap

opera, " El Clon. " The show asked such questions as, is it bigamy to marry

your wife's clone?

 

Ours will be the generation that decides crucial issues about the human

future. Should parents be able to buy height-enhancing genes for their

embryos? Will that be viewed as the moral equivalent of cheating in sports,

or more like signing your child up for private tennis lessons? And what

about putting genes in human embryos for traits people have never had

before, such as the speed of a cheetah? One scientist has proposed inserting

the genes for photosynthesis into a human embryo to create children who get

their energy from the sun and don't need to eat.

 

I asked my law students whether a person with plant or animal genes would

still be protected by the US Constitution. One replied, " If it walks like a

man, quacks like a man, and photosynthesizes like a man, it is a man. "

 

The very boundaries of what is human are being changed by technology.

Judgments about the legal rights and wrongs of new technologies shouldn't be

left to lawyers in 2030. We need to puzzle out the legal issues now before

we find that the technologies have created a world that we wouldn't want to

inhabit.

 

.. Lori B. Andrews is a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and chairs

the board of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future.

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

For those in the group who are not familiar with the book: " Brave New

World " by Aldous Huxly (1894-1963)here is a way to get a free copy.

Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931.

 

It seems that the copyrights ran out in the 1960's. To download go to:

 

http://somaweb.org/w/sub/Brave%20New%20World%20fulltext.html

 

If you are expected to live in " The New World Order " then you might

be interested in the thinkers of the past who saw it coming and wrote

things then which should have sounded an alarm to all.

 

I think that the book should be required reading for all as well as

the Orwell book mentioned. F.

 

___________

 

http://somaweb.org/

 

Because Brave New World describes a dystopia, it is often compared

with George Orwell's 1984, another novel you may want to read, which

also describes a possible horrible world of the future. The world of

1984 is one of tyranny, terror, and perpetual warfare. Orwell wrote

it in 1948, shortly after the Allies had defeated Nazi Germany in

World War II and just as the West was discovering the full dimensions

of the evils of Soviet totalitarianism. (book - " 1984 " by George

Orwell )

 

 

It's important to remember that Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931,

before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and before Joseph Stalin

started the purges that killed millions of people in the Soviet

Union. He therefore had no immediate real-life reason to make tyranny

and terror major elements of his story. In 1958 Huxley himself

said, " The future dictatorship of my imaginary world was a good deal

less brutal than the future dictatorship so brilliantly portrayed by

(George)Orwell. "

 

_______________

 

Either of these books could probably be bought for pocket change

today in a lot of used book stores. If you have not read them, you

have missed out on a couple of classics in literature and thought.

Frank