How would Ridley most likely respond to Dianne’s request?

For this last paper you have to choose ONE of the following FIVE CASE STUDIES (about Human Cloning and Euthanasia) and comment on the issues that you find most interesting with clear and logical explanations. Also comment on the moral implications that these issues have in our everyday life. You will see some questions below for each of the cases, you can use them as suggestions to guide your exposition. You have to write between 2 to 3 pages (not less!) double spaced, plus one more for your bibliography and footnotes. You must use at least one book or website for each case, making sure to include all sources on the bibliography page, (you can also use my lectures and the textbook, in addition to the other sources). Your grade will be affected if you don’t have all of these components.

CASE STUDIES: MY FATHER, MY SON (Human Cloning)

Dianne’s father was on his deathbed. Her father was an only child, and neither she nor her brother had any children, so Dianne decided she wanted to have her "father" as a baby. She wrote to a British geneticist, asking for information on cloning her father. "My father," she explained, "is a remarkable man and I intend to see that he goes on in the world … I am writing in the hope that you can help me find information on where human cloning may be performed now. There must be organizations that are actively pursuing cloning, and I want to contact them and see if there is a possibility of cloning my father. I have little time left to pursue this venture, and I would greatly appreciate your assistance." Dianne offered to be the host mother for the clone of her father.

Derek, who had an opportunity to read Dianne’s correspondence on the internet, was horrified at her request. "The desire to clone a passed-on loved one," he responded, "seems to me to be grotesque". It brings to mind the Stephen King book Pet Semetary. The clone would be a disappointment to the donor’s relatives, in that the original personality could never be completely duplicated. Additionally, the clone would not be able to live its own life; it would be forced to live a predefined, unattainable role

1. Discuss how you might respond to Dianne if she came to you, a geneticist, with her request.

2. Discuss whether the clone of Dianne’s father would be harmed by being a clone. Would it make a difference morally if Dianne’s father had concurred with her request? support your answer.

3. Discuss Derek’s initial reaction to Dianne’s request. How would Ridley most likely respond to Dianne’s request?

CASE STUDIES: JURASSIC PARK REVISITED (Human Cloning)

One of the proposed uses for cloning is to save endangered species by creating multiple clones of the few remaining members of the species. If this is morally acceptable, and even perhaps morally desirable, is it also morally acceptable to clone species that have already passed into extinction?
In his book Jurassic Park, author Michael Creighton envisions a world where extinct dinosaur species are resurrected by cloning DNA from fossils. On March 8, 1998, British newspapers announced that the DNA from 8,000 year-old human remains, which had been found in a cave in 1903, had been genetically linked to Adrian Targett, a living descendant of the cave dweller. In the not-too-distant future, it may be possible to clone DNA from prehistoric human remains or to use DNA fragments to alter the genes of a human or animal cell. Doing so might provide valuable information about human evolution and about other earlier species of humanoids.

In 1999 a team of scientist recovered a well-preserved 23,000-year-old woolly mammoth that was embedded in 26 tons of permafrost 477 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Although scientists had hoped to find some cloning-quality cells, they have so far been unsuccessful in cloning a mammoth.
While the prospect of bringing back the woolly mammoth is exciting for some, others are concerned that reintroducing extinct species will upset the balance of nature. Some people also fear that cloning programs for preserving endangered species may divert resources from efforts to save the natural habitats of these species.

1. Does Adrian Targett, as a direct descendent of the "cave dweller", have a reproductive right to clone his DNA? Support your answer. Discuss how Andrews and Nelkin might respond to this question?

2. Would a clone of an extinct species of humans be harmed by cloning, given that cloning is the only means of resurrecting the species? Does the fact that such a clone would not share the genotype of another living person overcome the objection that cloning violates the right of a person to have his or her own genotype? Support your answers.

CASE STUDIES: USING CLONES AS ORGAN DONORS (Human Cloning)

One of the proposed uses of genetic engineering is the creation of human organs for transplantation to use as an alternative to xenoplants. One method of doing this would be to clone a person’s own cells and then use the embryonic stem cells to grow the needed tissue of organ.
Jeremy has been waiting for a kidney transplant for two years and despairs of ever getting one. He knows that his odds of getting the kidney he so badly needs from a compatible human donor are probably only about 5 percent.
He has heard hat physicians have been conducting experiments using xenoplants from pigs with limited success. Jeremy, however, feels uneasy about having a xenoplant , in part because of rumors that those people who have been
infected with a potentially deadly virus from the transplanted organs (a rumor vehemently denied by the scientists running the experiments).

His physician tells him of an experiment using embryonic stem cells to grow organs. The process entails creating a clone of Jeremy and then aborting the embryo so that the embryo’s stem cells can be harvested. The process, the physician tells him, can be carried out in vitro in a newly created "artificial womb,". However, the success rate is getting the stem cells to differentiate into a functional kidney is very low, and it may take many attempts before the procedure is successful, if al all. Jeremy is opposed to abortion but also realizes that this may be his only chance for survival.

1. Many people consider a brain a prerequisite for personhood. Biologists have already succeeded in creating mouse embryos that fail to develop a head. According to British biologist Jonathan Slack, we could do the same with human embryos. These headless and, hence, nonsentient humans, he says, could serve as "organ sacs" for organ transplants as well as subjects for medical research.
Discuss the moral issues involved in genetically engineering and cloning headless humans for organ transplants and medical research.

CASE STUDIES: DONALD COWART: "PLEASE, LET ME DIE" (Euthanasia)

In 1973 twenty-six-year-old jet pilot and sometime rodeo performer Donald Cowart was standing in a field with his father when there was a violent explosion caused by leaking gas. The explosion killed his father and sent Donald, whose body was engulfed in flames, running for half a mile. When a farmer found him, Cowart, who was in excruciating pain form burns covering more than 65 percent of his body, asked for a gun so he could kill himself. The farmer refused his request and called an ambulance, Cowart asked the paramedics not to drive him to the hospital but to leave him in the field to die. They instead administered lifesaving measures and took him to the hospital.
At the hospital Cowart was subjected to daily baths in a chlorine bleach solution to clean his sores. He lost both of his eyes and all his fingers and underwent several operations for skin grafts and amputations. After he was released from the hospital, Cowart attempted suicide several times. Eventually, he completed a law degree. Cowart frequently speaks at medical conferences on issues relating to euthanasia. He still insists that the hospital staff who treated him for his burns violated his right to self-determination in keeping him alive.

1. Discuss whether the paramedics did the morally right thing in treating Cowart, even though he asked them not to. What moral principles and concerns are relevant to this decision?

2. Imagine that you are Cowart’s best friend and that you, rather than the farmer, found him. What is your moral duty as his friend? Discuss whether the fact that you are his friend, rather than a stranger or a medical professional, is relevant in making your decision to end his suffering or call an ambulance. Would your decision have been different if this incident had occurred in a war, or in the wilderness where there was no medical assistance available?

CASE STUDIES: "FINAL EXIT": HOW TO COMMIT SUICIDE (Euthanasia)

In February 2000, "Final Exit", a show on how to commit suicide, was aired on late-night cable television in two Oregon cities. The program, which was produced by Hemlock Society founder Derek Humphry, laid out in detail the tools and drugs needed to end one’s life quickly and painlessly. it also offered practical advice on "keeping clear of the law" and, for the friends and family of the deceased, "dealing with the aftermath." The show was also intended to raise public support against proposed federal legislation that would impose sanctions on physicians who prescribe lethal drugs to their terminally ill patients.

Although physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Barbara Coombs lee, who led the initiative to get the bill passed, criticized the video as "irresponsible and potentially dangerous for some people… There is information about how a person could die using very readily available tools and drugs, and for some people who may be mentally unbalanced or acting impulsively, that could be dangerous information."

In response, the cable station and the producers of the show pointed out that this information is already widely available. The program was based on Humphry’s book,
Final Exit, which has sold over one million copies and is available in twelve languages. The book is also available on audiocassette and on Humphry’s internet site. "I feel strongly," says Cindy Noblitt, co-producer of the video, "that if we are truly free, that an individual should have the right to decide when and how to end their lives … I think it’s a central role of the media to provide complete and accurate information to the public that they may need to make those hard decisions in their lives."

1. Should there be limits on freedom of speech when it comes to publicizing methods for killing oneself or others? Should suicide machines such as Kevorkian’s Mercitron or Australian Dr. Nitschke’s "COGen" machine (a machine that the Hemlock Society hopes to market that pumps carbon dioxide through a nasal tube and is used with a sedative to assist a person to die) be made available to the general public?