Archive: 2011

March 9, 2011 - The movie Gattaca (1997) depicts a future society where genetic engineering is used to create designer babies. These children are endowed with every genetic advantage possible from the elimination of inherited diseases to an extra finger on each hand in order to reach otherwise unattainable piano performances. Parents bestow on children the best possible genetic […]

March 9, 2011 - Growing up, I had two associations with the word drug: one was with the medicine doctors prescribed to fight my chronic ear infections, bouts of flu, and childhood ailments, and the other was with illegal drugs--meth, cocaine, and heroine. I always knew the purpose of pharmaceuticals like Tylenol or Claritin. They were there to fix me, or as we've been discussing in class, "bring me up to the norm." The purpose of illegal drugs was not so clear. Were they social? Were they fun? I couldn't imagine those being strong enough reasons to risk an overdose. It never occurred to me that illegal drugs are actually performance enhancing. They push user experiences beyond normal human capability, and that is the reason people take them.

March 8, 2011 - In his book, The Lives to Come, Phillip Kitcher gives an introduction into the science behind human enhancements and biomedical research, and he poses problems that may, and probably will, arise in the future as the science presses onward.  He speaks favorably of the science, but he seems apprehensive about the social implications  and the human […]

March 7, 2011 - In the fall lecture series science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer noted that there are three paradigms in popular culture that define our approach to sentient computers. The first is termination or annihilation represented by the Terminator movies. When computers achieve self-awareness they will immediately recognize humanity as a threat and seek to annihilate its […]

March 7, 2011 - Dr. Kourany, by way of her exploration of “promises vs. perils” in her human enhancement lecture, mentioned that one of the “perils” includes the fact that, from an ethical standpoint, “moral” enhancement will more than likely become neglected.  As a result, problems such as war, pollution, continued poverty, global warming, economic crisis, etc., might not […]

March 7, 2011 - In her essay Forever Small: The Strange Case of Ashley, Eva Kittay describes a controversial medical procedure performed on a young girl known publically as Ashley, an immobile, unresponsive child with no apparent cognitive function.  Ashley’s parents and doctors chose to administer growth suppressors to Ashley in order to keep her small, and thus, more […]

March 7, 2011 - Editor’s note: This is a review of two papers given at the recent conference “Brain, Mind, and Society: The Future of Neuroethics” that was held at the SMU Maguire Center. Dr. Paul Churchland was UT Dallas’s choice of speaker for that conference. New neurotechnologies offer a host of benefits and risks which, in turn, poses […]

March 7, 2011 - Eva Kittay ended her lecture last week by noting that the most terrible things have come from the brightest minds in science. The allusion refers to the most famous paradox in modern history where the great Physicists of the 1940’s produced the atom bomb and the ensuing arms race. Kittay’s statement serves as a helpful […]

March 7, 2011 - Recently, I was flipping through the channels on television looking for something interesting to watch. I stumbled across a program titled, “Explorer, How to Build a Beating Heart” and in light of this class, I decided to watch. The show begins by showcasing a woman named Samantha who was born with a defective heart and […]

March 7, 2011 - Having read three articles by Dr. Eva Kittay on topics of disability, ethics of selective abortion for disability, and the delusion of choice in family planning, attending her lecture on racism and cognitive disability, and meeting her at a graduate meet-and-greet, the idea of “human equality” kept recurring in my thoughts on our progress in […]