[extropy-chat] BIOETHICS: the other shoe drops

[Robert J. Bradbury]

Ok, the New York Times is reporting [1] that the U.S. Bioethics
panel (chaired by that person we all know and love Dr. Leon
Kass) is now suggesting limits to assisted fertility.

"Oh gee we are sorry that your sperm are having a hard
time dealing with your eggs, but by chance they do
manage to get it together we want to regulate what
you can do with the results because lord forbid you
would donate any fertilized eggs you do not require so
they could be used for stem cell research (killing a
"child" in the process) because we wouldn't want any of
that those biological reseaerch results to contribute
to improving human health or God Forbid(!) extending
human longevity because that would erode the monoply
that religions have on life and death and the afterlife."

On the optimistic side it appears there are till a few sane
voices on the panel such as Dr. Gazzaniga from Dartmouth.

Robert

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/politics/02ETHI.html?pagewanted=print