Weinberg, The Dark Side of the Genome, 303-313
319. Will DNA predict traits? [physical, perhaps not psychological: see p. 327 "never be clear, fully
reliable predictors of all traits."
322/323. Will DNA predict IQ? [Should it?]
324. If a fetus has Huntington's marker, what then?
324/325. Are the parents of a prenatally diagnosed genetically defective child negligent?
325. What are some of the areas of concern that we ought to worry about, in terms of establishing the human
genome?
327. What very 'insidious' problem is involved with our consideration of genetic technologies? [genetic
determinism; cf norm of reaction]
328. If we need an ethic for the genome, what ought it to be like?
Morison, "Visions"
-What's all your technology for?
-What does it mean to "recreate and enact a vision of the world?"
-Who were Henry Adams, Matthew Arnold, Plato, Bacon, and HGWells, and why are they here?
-What has been an increasingly noticeable paradox with the passage of time, with respect to our "power" and
ability to decide our future?
increasing power; decreasing ability to decide what we want]
-What is ideal? [happiness, leisure, transcendence?]
-What vision inspires the technological age? [abundance cures misery]
-Is "health" a negative concept? Do we have a positive defn. of health?
[no; ~ "normal" as "absence of abnormal", what is not abnormal]
-Is "health" a test of worthiness?
-What similarity does Morison bear to Winner? [believes we need a comprehensive, satisfying vision of the
future; concerned with ends, not just means; asks questions of purpose, instead of falling to American
fascination with efficient causes]
Volti, 7. Medical and Biological Technologies [107-121]
107. Why should we trust Lewis Thomas about the history of medicine? [we shouldn't]
107. How could anyone quarrel with the positive results of medical technology?
107. Are most improvements in mortality and morbidity the result of advances in medical technology? [no: in
nutrition, sanitation, hygiene - in short, in public health]
108. What dos Volti find paradoxical about the escalation of medical costs? [largely irrelevant when govt.
and private insurers pay more than 90% of the costs] When he says "largely irrelevant", to whom is he
speaking?
108. Who pays the government's and private insurers' costs?
108. What criteria did Jennett propose for evaluating medical technology? [necessity, safety, kind-ness,
wisdom--need + benefit; benefit > costs; improved quality/duration life; no more efficient/better use
of resources exists
110. Why does Volti label Medicare's 1972 adoption of dialysis' costs as capricious? [.25% patients, 4%
$]What other diseases/conditions show similar disparities in affliction and expense? [Heart, AIDS]
113. What are the major issues concerning medical technology for heart disease? [bypass, transplant,
artificial; selection, cost/benefit]
113. What similar issues are there for neonates and the elderly?
113. What does Volti mean by halfway technology? [palliative not curative]
114. How does the multiplication of diagnostic technology reflect the principle that sometimes invention is
the mother of necessity? [excessive tests; useless fetal heart monitors; iatrogenic debility]
116. What importance do non-objective factors have in medicine? [judgmente and intuition; tacit knowledge;
psychological dimensions and psychosomatic components, "caring" as positive feature of medicine]
117. V. claims that "every advance is both a solution and a problem." Is that always true?
118. What are some of the prospects and challenges of genetic technology such as screening and splicing?
[abortion, sex determination, discrimination in insurance, job, education, marriage, unexpected
consequences of GIGO alteration of genotypes]
119. Is it good or bad that organisms are patentable?
120. Would a rational eugenics be a social boon?
120. What are some of the limits to a focus on genetic endowment?
From an old edition, article by Frohock on Special [Neonatal] Care, 295-317]
296. What does it mean to be rational on behalf of another?
297. What's your opinion of patients' rights to refuse treatment?
[competence, capability, consistency]
What's your opinion of patients' rights to demand treatment?
298. What is "substituted judgment"? [~ e.g. living wills]
299. Should personal worth or social utility of a life count in making life or death decisions about medical
treatment?
304. Is all life worth living?
305. What should the limits of choice be? [for self? for others?]
305. What factors or qualities of life are conventionally viewed as significant or important? [brain
function, independence, longevity, pain]
307. Three different types of decisions? [experts; rights; quality]
315. What's the difference between active and passive euthanasia? Should active euthanasia be allowed?
315. What principles do patients' rights center on? [autonomy, ends not means, inalienable rights]