Bioethics for Beginners

Dr. Glenn McGee is President of the Division of Research Ethics at Celltex Therapeutics, a stem cell research company in Houston, Texas. He held two successive endowed chairs in bioethics after serving for a decade as professor at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Medical Ethics. He is the founding editor of The American Journal of Bioethics and a leading authority on ethical issues in science and medicine. McGee has been a columnist for The Scientist, New York Times News Service, and MSNBC, and a frequent guest and commentator for National Public Radio, CNN, Fox, CBS, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Oprah, among others. McGee's books include The Perfect Baby (2nd edn., 2000), The Human Cloning Debate (with A. Caplan, 4th edn., 2004), and the best-selling Beyond Genetics: The User's Guide to DNA (2004). In addition, he has authored hundreds of scholarly papers about ethical, legal, and social issues in medicine.

• Preface xiAcknowledgements xvCaution 1 Tip-Toe When Walking on the Bleeding Edge 1Case 1 The Dangers of Creating Life in the Lab 1Case 2 Design: More Intelligent Every Day 3Case 3 “Shroom” Science: Safe and Effective? 4Case 4 A Robot Code of Ethics 6Case 5 No More Periods, Period 8Case 6 Search Me, Shape Me, Any Way You Want Me 10Case 7 A Bloody Mess 11Case 8 Stem Cells: The Goo of Life and the Debate of the Century 14Caution 2 Everybody Lies 17Case 9 Lies, Damn Lies . . . and Scientific Misconduct 17Case 10 Conflict of Interest Means Business at NIH 18Case 11 While You’re Here, How about a Spinal Tap? 21Case 12 Study Subject or Human Guinea Pig? 22Case 13 The New Tuskegee: Exploiting the Poor in Clinical Trials 23Case 14 Salt in the Wound: Will India Rise up Against the Oppression of Foreign Clinical Trials? 26Case 15 Dr. Hwang and the Bad Apple Theory of Scientific Misconduct 27Caution 3 The Genome Isn’t What It Used to Be 34Case 16 Becoming Genomic: Just What Does it Mean Anyway? 34Case 17 Enhancement Comes from Insecurity 36Case 18 Wearing Genes from the Gulf War 37Caution 4 Reproduce at Your Own Peril 40Case 19 Tomorrow’s Child: Making Babies in the Twenty-First Century 40Case 20 An Argument against Human Cloning 42Case 21 Two Genetic Moms: High-Tech Trouble or Double the Love? 49Case 22 Grave Robbing the Cradle 51Case 23 Baby Banking 53Case 24 Cash Strapped American Fertility Docs Cry Out for Mercy 54Caution 5 Don’t Sweat the Nano-Sized Stuff 57Case 25 “Nanoethics”: The ELSI of Twenty-First-Century Bioethics? 57Case 26 The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 62Case 27 The Merging of Man and Machine 64Case 28 My Eye’s on You 66Caution 6 The State Will Protect Your Health Right Up Until It Doesn’t 69Case 29 Has the Spread of HPV Vaccine Marketing Conveyed Immunity to Common Sense? 69Case 30 Is the New Cigarette a Smoking Gun? Eclipse Unethical, Unregulated Research 71Case 31 “Universal” Healthcare: A Long Way Off 73Case 32 Newborn Screening with a Twist 75Case 33 HIV Testing Must Be Routine 76Case 34 Re-creating Flu: A Recipe for Disaster 78Case 35 Pandemic Influenza Requires Trust in Government Healthcare 79Case 36 A Hostile Environment for Environmental Protection Documents 82Case 37 To Quarantine or Not to Quarantine, Is That the Question? 83Caution 7 “Do No Harm” Has Become “Care for Yourself” 86Case 38 Medicine Is Not a Steel Mill 86Case 39 Does Your Doctor Have Skeletons? Good Luck Finding Them 87Case 40 Medicine’s Dirty Laundry 89Case 41 Dr. Koop: Meet Dr. Ethics 91Case 42 Organ Donation: Why Isn’t There an App for That? 94Case 43 Docu-Medical Shows Lack Reality 95Caution 8 You Aren’t Dead Until Someone Tells You So 98Case 44 Redefining Retirement: Beyond Rest and Recreation 98Case 45 Medicare Is Going South: What Do We Owe the Aging? 99Case 46 The Fight to Die Well: We Will Expect More from Death Than Our Ancestors Did 100Case 47 The Case of the Body Snatchers 102Case 48 A Few Conclusions from the Terri Schiavo Case 104Case 49 Living Wills Save Money? Dude, Did You Really Say That Out Loud? 106Case 50 The Plural of Anecdote Is Not Ambien 107Caution 9 Eat Only Food for Thought 110Case 51 Fat in America 110Case 52 Breakfast for Thought 111Case 53 Want Fish? Ethics First, Please 113Case 54 Dying for Food 115Caution 10 Beware of Ideologues and Demagogues 117Case 55 Bioethics for Christians, Corporate Whores, and Atheists 117Case 56 Pharma Owns Bioethics (and Other Fables) 120Case 57 The Kevorkianization of Cloning 123Case 58 Not in the Bush Leagues Anymore 125Case 59 Professor Hurlbut, Your 15 Minutes Are Up 128Case 60 The Heady Days of Proposition 71: Stem Cell Research in the California Sun 139Conclusion: Move Slowly and Stay Cool 146A Hot and Cold Running Genius 146Science Must Slow Its Speed 148Sources and Credits 150Index 160