I think it's ludicrously stupid, you'd probably be charged with homicide if you chop somebody's head off before they're dead.

Arthur Caplan

Categorized in : Health

People ask, 'Is the science going to run ahead of the ethics?' I don't think that's always the problem. I think it's that the science runs ahead of the politics. Bioethics can alert people to something coming down the road, but it doesn't mean policy and politicians are going to pay attention. They tend to respond when there's an immediate crisis. The job of the ethicist, in some ways, is to warn or be prophetic. You can yell loudly, but you can't necessarily get everybody to leave the cinema, so to speak.

running jobs mean

With terminal illness, your fate is sealed. Morally, we're more comfortable with a situation where you don't cause death, but you hasten it. We think that's a bright line. Comparing the U.S. with Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal for patients suffering 'intolerable health problems.'

fate suicide science

The time to talk about it [genetic engineering to improve a baby's genes] in schools and churches and magazines and debate societies is now. If you wait, five years from now the gene doctor will be hanging out the MAKE A SMARTER BABY sign down the street.

doctors baby school

Do good in the name of children. Do good in the name of public he... by Arthur Caplan

Do good in the name of children. Do good in the name of public health.

public-health names children

The more you start prohibiting donors, the more you are going to have less blood in the supply. It's still not clear you can get it from blood transfusions.

donors clear blood

[Cloning] can't make you immortal because clearly the clone is a different person. If I take twins and shoot one of them, it will be faint consolation to the dead one that the other one is still running around, even though they are genetically identical. So the road to immortality is not through cloning.

cloning different running

Bodies aren't the same as Coca-Cola cans. by Arthur Caplan

Bodies aren't the same as Coca-Cola cans.

Renegade scientists and totalitarian loonies are not the folks most likely to abuse genetic engineering. You and I are-not because we are bad but because we want to do good. In a world dominated by competition, parents understandably want to give their kids every advantage. ... The most likely way for eugenics to enter into our lives is through the front door as nervous parents ... will fall over one another to be first to give Junior a better set of genes.

eugenics kids fall

A moral principle in genetic testing is that it should always be done with the consent of the individual. No one wants someone snooping into his DNA.

dna done principles

The challenge is for bioethicists to position themselves to be on panels, boards and other decision making bodies where oublic policy positions wil be established-where the exploding changes in health care that are now underway will be addressed.

boards decision challenges

The use of fetuses as organ and tissue donors is a ticking time b... by Arthur Caplan

The use of fetuses as organ and tissue donors is a ticking time bomb of bioethics.

fetus bombs use

There has never been just 'coach class' health care, but with these amenities you are seeing people get priorities according to your ability to pay. It's one thing to say you get perks; it's another to say you can buy your way to the head of the line.

money class people

Whoever sent these messages should be off social media forever. All of them, can't Facebook Messenger do more to police this ? They should.

Cathryn Donaldson're going to be giving out these sums of money that a lot of people never see in a year and tell them their duty is to shift it over to the out-of-network service provider ? you can't be serious.

There's a temptation, I suspect, to take the money and run, i can certainly empathize with the temptation to not play ball. ... I just think that's a ludicrous burden to put on the individual.

It happens every day, you get what I call a' wallet biopsy.'. by Arthur Caplan

It happens every day, you get what I call a' wallet biopsy.'.

We were surprised by the amount of money. It was considerable, sadly, I think part of the reason we see so much money here is that people do want to help, but we're operating in a kind of culture where people aren't listening to what the experts are telling them.

Sadly, I think part of the reason we see so much money here is that people do want to help, but we're operating in a kind of culture where people aren't listening to what the experts are telling them, it's one of those sad effects, I think, of anti-science.

There are bigger searches that could be done. by Arthur Caplan

There are bigger searches that could be done.

I think it would be useful to have a crowdfunding requirement that says if you crowdsource here, we're going to tell you the outcome of what happened -- that you should fill that in at the end, that you have a responsibility. People gave you money to tell them what happened.