Monday, May 24, 2004
Bio insanity
Do you have days when you rapidly swing between being sure you are the only sane person in the world, and doubting your own sanity? My mind definitely went into tailspin with some of the latest items from BioEdge, the BioEthics Newsletter. Among them:
Do you have days when you rapidly swing between being sure you are the only sane person in the world, and doubting your own sanity? My mind definitely went into tailspin with some of the latest items from BioEdge, the BioEthics Newsletter. Among them:
US bioethicist Dr Norman Fost has a simple answer to the problem of drug-taking athletes: lift the drug bans. "If you're going to interfere with someone's liberty to take drugs, you need to have a reason," says Dr Fost, the director of the medical ethics program at the University of Wisconsin. Fost claims the health risks associated with the newer injectable steroids are wildly exaggerated. Sporting injuries themselves are more damaging than drugs. Fost scoffs at the argument that drugs make pharmacology triumph over character and natural skill. He says fans accept the use of fibreglass vaulting poles and sleek swimsuits; rich countries have better training facilities than poor countries. Drugs, he argues, are simply another strand in a evolution towards ever higher sporting achievement.
In the increasing competitive US healthcare market, sports doctors are paying professional teams as much as US$1.5 million for the right to give players medical treatment. In return, they receive the exclusive right to market themselves as the team's official doctors. Admittedly, many doctors fret about the ethics of sponsorship deals. "What's it say about our profession when the most high-profile jobs are awarded not by merit, but by auction?" asks Dr Robert Huizenga, past president of the National Football League Team Physicians Society. I’m just thankful the All Blacks doctor isn’t chosen by who puts up the best sponsorship deal.
US fans of reality TV can now watch ugly ducklings become swans on three networks. After the success of "Extreme Makeover" on ABC last year, MTV has created a series called "The Swan" in which 16 homely women are beautified with cosmetic surgery, diet, exercise, and psychological counselling. One of them will advance to a beauty pageant held at the end of the series. The Fox network presents "I Want a Famous Face" in which seven men and women who want to look like a star (e.g. Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez or Elvis) get cosmetic surgery.
Some bioethicists are worried about the increasing normalisation of potentially risky cosmetic surgery and perplexed by the growing appeal of these bizarre shows.
The world's first embryonic stem cell bank opened in Britain this week with a deposit of two stem cell lines created by scientists at King's College London and the Centre for Life in Newcastle. The lobby group Life says the new bank "trivialises human life by creating embryos... effectively turning them into pharmaceutical products".
Two UK artists want to insert DNA from loved ones into an apple tree to create a living memorial of his or her biological essence. Every cell of the tree would contain part of them. It may not get get off the ground because of government red tape, though.
Alarmed by the rapidly growing market for high-resolution, artistic photographs of children in the womb, the US Food and Drug Administration has issued a blanket warning on the practice. It fears that an irresponsible practitioner of what it called "entertainment ultrasound" could expose the unborn child to dangerous doses of ultrasound energy.
