This WEB log considers issues involving assisted suicide/euthanasia, bioethics, human cloning, biotechnology, and the dangers of animal rights/liberation. My views expressed here, as in my books and other writings, reflect my understanding that the philosophy of human exceptionalism is the bedrock of universal human rights. Or, to put it another way: human life matters. (The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of any organization with which I am affiliated.)
I thought it would be interesting and fun to take the pulse of the readers of Secondhand Smoke. So, I devised a poll to see what y'all think about some of the most important and contentious bioethical issues of the day.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:36 PM
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18 Comments:
I should have included an "All of the Above" and a "None of the Above." Next time.
I picked suicide clinics, but I think cloned baby will be first if they manage to crack that one successfully. Although maybe after sucicde clinics.
I picked human cloning as that seems both likely and not nebulous. Despite the technological problems, I bet that will happen sooner than you think. Too many rogue scientists want the popularity that would come with it, despite the many ethical concerns.
Suicide clinics "on demand" are probably likely, but what is "on demand." Some might argue that it is currently happening.
The others I don't think are likely.
Anyone wishing to explain their votes are encouraged to do so.
For clarification, what do you mean by "fetal farming?"
Do you mean in vitro style growing fetuses outside of a womb and using that as an organ bank? Or, do you mean abortions and using the fetal tissue for tranplant?
If the former, I doubt that'll happen ever, based on the technological hindrances.
If the latter, then I think it will occur very soon, if not already happening, in the like of China or North Korea.
By fetal farming I mean intentionally creating embryos, not for birth, but for gestation to the fetal stage (whether in natural or artificial enviroments) and use in research, organ procurement, etc.
I was balanced between the chimp's being declared a person and the suicide clinic but went for the latter. I assumed you meant more than just some one wacko court's declaring the chimp a person. I suppose that might happen in California any day now, but it would be overturned pretty fast. And as for the suicide clinic, don't they already have those in one European country or more? Switzerland, I seem to recall? The question didn't specify the U.S., but even if it had, the fact that something's already being done in Europe is a pretty good bellwether when we're talking about 20 full years of U.S. time.
Lydia: There is a private suicide clining called Dignitas in Switzerland. It isn't explicitly legalized but we are well on that path. Plus, the Netherlands now permits the depressed to be euthanized.
Re the Chimps: Spain may pass a law declaring them to be persons in the near future.
A guardian ad litum for animals or nature in general? That won't happen in the fed system, but maybe a state. I'd support it for the general environment, but probably not individual animals, for after all, we give "personhood" to corporations. The voice of Nature and environment is surely outvoiced and far more important, than corporations.
Actually, my Naderite leanings would remove artificial personhood from corporations. Why should an organization have freedom of speech, for example. Individuals should have freedom of speech. But that is beyond the scope of this Weblog.
I thought all except the first seemed likely, but I picked fetal farming since it is very easily defended on utilitarian grounds and such thinking has already entered the mainstream, and also-and correct me if I'm wrong on this-it seems significant percentage of the population (though not a majority I don't think) views fetuses as non-persons. Although I had forgotten about the private assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland or I might've gone with that since that is also easy for proponents to defend as they can appeal to emotions and ideas like autonomy (I see that working well in the U.S where a lot of people have libertarian leanings).
Something else I'm quite concerned about is that preimplantation genetic screening will be able to screen for an ever-increasing number of conditions and even traits, and that "designer babies" will become more common in the near future. And that we'll see less and less people with disabilities-even "diffibilities" like Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism) where those who have it are often gifted (although I think I'm more of an example of a non-gifted aspie!) while attempts to find cures and treatments for them quietly fade away. The new eugenics is alarminlgy easy to justify, much to my frustration.
gwenhwyfar: It is already happening. They are screening out and destroying embryos because they might have a propensity to adult onset cancer.
Better chimps than rats!
They're next!
After that it will probably be the cockroaches and all pesticides will be outlawed.
DDT was and millions of African children paid the price by dying from malaria.
I think that we will be seeing suicide "clinics," embryo farming, and cloning for harvesting human body parts within two or three years. One thing that will play into the call for suicide "clinics" is the mainstream media's relentless stream of articles about the problems of aging. That will scare the yuppies who are not used to thinking of themselves as not athletic or perhaps unattractive. To help myself come to terms with my own fears of these eventualities, I have taken to reading just for the joy of it the Vermont Country Store catalog. As I scan the products they sell, I find it so comforting that such things dry skin and cold feet and veins that show in the wrong places have not only been plaguing us for years but that we've been sort of solving them for years. I look at the drawings of the sweet grandparents in rocking chairs and it takes me back to my Norman Rockwell childhood. And somehow seeing balms and special stockings is humorous and makes light of aging's issues and makes one feel as though everyone is going through this. They don't pretend to cure anything, but socks and salves will make you more comfortable. It's an attitude toward life and living that is absent from the hollywoodized world the reporters and writers of the mainstream media sell. But I'm sure many of the people my age are already filled with fear and wishing to control life's natural processes if they can. Some of this has resulted from the well-intended preventive medicine movement, which I think went beyond helpful and into condemning at some point on their continuum of existence. It has also made us all very self-conscious and self-focused. That much attention on ourselves is not healthy emotionally, and so it is creating,in a way, distress, which I think will lead to fear and isolation and people wishing to exit by themselves because we have made them feel ashamed.
You are more pessimistic than I am. I think we will see fetal farming, unless we can convince people to outlaw all cloning, when there is an artificial womb, say in ten years or so. The same arguments being made today, will be made then. And the hope will be to cure Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's because I doubt ES cells will--unless adult stem cells have already done the job.
I think suicide clinics may not happen here. I think they will overseas.
I think a few countries will begin declaring chimps to be persons within 5 years, probably starting with Spain.
I don't think ES cells will provide most of the cures being touted today. I think they will be valued more for basic research.
If human cloning can be done--if we are lucky, it can't be--the first cloned baby will be born within ten years.
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