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Hello to Anderson "Fans"

Posted by RobertB on Tuesday, February 06, 2007 12:20:57 PM
My site visits have gone thru the roof - over 50 hits in a week!!

With Dr. William French Anderson now having been convicted, many have stopped by to read:

A Geneticist in Trouble - Molestation and Manipulation

http://bioeethics.townhall.com/g/b9089a8c-8712-4edb-b097-c6b8ec026e6b

Be sure to read my review of Crichton's Next and other interesting posts!

I'll be posting more soon.
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NEXT by Michael Crichton

Posted by RobertB on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 5:36:36 PM
 

He's done it again and as only he can do it.
This time it covers the gamut of bioethics.
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Michael-Crichton/dp/0060872985/sr=8-1/qid=1167777723/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2316885-2866523?ie=UTF8&s=books


One of my regular bioethics blog "reads" - www.2bhuman.worldmagblog.com/2bhuman (Matthew Eppinette) pans the novel as too much "rubbish" and "ugliness"    in his review here ( http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=441)    but likes  the "(a)uthor’s Note  (as it ) gives a good overview of Crichton’s position on genetic science, and the annotated bibliography is a helpful resource for those wanting to explore the topic on their own".

I more heartily endorse this novel. It doesn't sugarcoat the possibilities and the actualities (most of the occurrences except the monkey boys and the annoying parrot have happened in one way or another and are fictionalized here).  It just puts them in "novel" form through a set of very flawed characters - its fast paced chapters outlining new biotech "advances" and problems at nearly every turn of the page would seem to prevent its cinematic conversion as too many subplots  but we'll see.  As to its ugliness, has Eppinette read today's detective and legal novels?  Does he not know that we're a bit immunized from the "grossness" by the CSI effect?

God bless Crichton for making a riveting story (multiple stories, actually) in a popular and secular format that amazingly lead to the same conclusions of caution that we in "absolute morals" community have been talking about for years.


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Donate Life ... Promise it wont hurt a bit.

Posted by RobertB on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 5:18:34 PM
 

Did you see the DonateLife "organ donor" float in the Rose Parade?

Maybe you've signed that DMV slip once upon a time but even if that pink dot hasn't fallen off your license, it's not worth much without your signature. Is that form still there or did it disappear that last time you pulled out your ID.

Hey it’s the electronic age! Please logon to www.donatelifecalifornia.org and quickly register.*

 

And yes it might give me a warm fuzzy if you dropped me an email or visit my web page (www.bioethics.townhall.com)

when you did.

--------------------------------------------------

Also in the line of healthy and ethical donations, though these may hurt since you're still with us.

https://www.givelife.org/ (Blood donation - they're really short this time of year)

http://www.marrow.org/ (Yes it would be a real pain in the behind to save someone's life if you match)

___________________________________

For more info on organ and tissue donation.

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/99370.html (by Judy Lin)

While everyone will be counting down to the new year this weekend, the state will be counting up to its 1 millionth organ donor. California's organ and tissue donor registry has tripled, from 280,000 names to more than 860,000, since the online database was linked to the Department of Motor Vehicles in July. Tracy Bryan, president of Donate Life California, the state's nonprofit organ and tissue donor registry, says California is on track to register 1 million people after the start of the new year. She says the nonprofit hopes to enroll 15 million of the state's 23 million licensed drivers in the next five years. "It really was a wonderful thing that we had that partnership. It's really increased the numbers substantially," Bryan said. Before July, Californians who wanted to volunteer for the program had to sign a donor card and affix a small pink dot on their driver's license or identification card. However, the DMV did not keep track of how many people used the pink stickers, and the donor cards can easily get lost…(more above link)

________________________________________

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_4930102 (by Reg Green)

In the past year, the number of Californians registered to be organ and tissue donors has soared. A year ago, there were 200,000. Today there are nearly 900,000. Some of these registrants have already saved lives. While the efforts of thousands of health care professionals and volunteers have been pushing up these numbers for years, this stunning increase is due to one simple change: as of July 1, every time a California resident applies for or renews a driver license or ID card at the DMV, the opportunity to register as a potential organ and tissue donor is offered. It's true that previously hundreds of thousands of Californians had taken the trouble to indicate on their driver licenses their wish to be donors. But in the trauma that follows sudden death - a road accident, or an unexpected stroke - family members are generally too distraught to hunt for the wallet or purse with the vital information in it … (more above link)

http://www.nicholasgreen.org/

Reg Green is the father of Nicholas Green, the 7-year-old boy who died during a botched robbery in Italy in 1994. Reg and Maggie Green donated Nicholas' organs and saved seven lives. Reg is an internationally recognized expert on the impact of donation decisions. The Greens run the Nicholas Green Foundation.

 

 

*You get a "card" template to print out - I put my next of kin info on the back, so my wife confirms when I'm dead, and we put a cheap plastic lamination on the card.

I also added the info on the ICE listing on my cell phone.

www.bioethics.townhall.com

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Prop 85 - 2nd letter to Pasadena Star News

Posted by RobertB on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:00:49 PM
 

Published Oct 4 in Pasadena Star News / SG Tribune

Parental rights issue

The Star-News' position against Proposition 85 is the media elite not "getting it" when passionate backers and the growing grassroots groundswell continues to press for basic parental rights. Without it, parents can't know of health complications or abuse.

Prop. 85 is crafted to the standard of a Supreme Court decision, allowing exceptions for life-threatening emergency (of course), pre-existing waiver or emancipation, or judicial waiver for family abuse or abandonment.

The president will sign a bill to cut off interstate minor abortions, and California may join 40 states with these laws. Should Planned Parenthood then rent a ship to offer it in international waters? How pathetic and unnecessary except to avoid accountability to offer real counseling and protection to minors.

Boys will be boys, but two-thirds are men who take opportunity without responsibility and seek a quiet way out. Now clinics may ask, but a girl filling out a form seeking a quick solution ratified by a self-serving boyfriend may not provide a full answer that she would to a parent with authority and the caring to follow through to end abuse.

Families are breaking down. How does the newspaper figure devaluing parental rights is a solution? Crisis pregnancy clinics sponsored by caring churches and individuals offer support to those who have nowhere else to turn, and they will be there regardless.

To me, either people want a solution that will help bring light and life for vulnerable girls and their unborn, or they don't. Vote "yes" on Prop. 85.

Robert Blundell

San Gabriel

This is the Pasadena Star News position on Prop 85

GIVEN how obscure, unnecessary, multi-pronged and even nefarious so many state ballot propositions continue to be, it's no wonder that those to be put before us in November are not exactly the talk of the town.  The only place anyone can be heard discussing them is during paid television airtime - and those advertisements are not much of a discussion.

By our lights, only pressing economic or social issues that somehow cannot be solved by the governor, the courts and the Legislature ought to be brought to the ballot.  If it's not something Californians are up in arms about, it ought not be put before us.  A good example of the kind of issue we should not be voting on - and thus should vote "no" on - is mandatory parental notification of minors seeking an abortion, presented to us as Proposition85.

It does not belong in the state constitution.  First off, California voters just turned down virtually the same measure - written and paid for by the same individual backer - only 11 months ago. Why is it here again? Most importantly, there is no clamor among Californians about this. Over 90 percent of teen girls considering abortion already talk to either  parent or another adult authority figure - often a minister or family physician - before making any decision.

When teens can't talk to parents about such a crucial moral and medical matter, it's often because they are in an abusive situation at home already.  What is clear in states with such regulations is that pregnant and desperate teens don't risk such confrontations - they go to states without them, often resulting in later-term abortions, or they dangerously attempt to self-induce abortion or seek illegal "backstreet" ones.  In California, many teens would head for Tijuana.  The fact is, both teen pregnancies and teen abortions show sharp downward trends in California in recent years - by 46 percent and about 50percent respectfully.   This is a desperate measure in a time in which the trends are in a healthy direction. Vote "no" on Proposition 85.

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Prop 85 - first letter to Pasadena Star News

Posted by RobertB on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:59:26 PM
As Published 9/27

Prevention built in to Prop. 85

Re male values - let's talk Proposition 85. Let's focus not on girls' "choices," but guys, you know who you are, who hit on teenage girls. No one should be surprised that of Californian girls under 18 who become pregnant, 70 percent of those queried said the guy was over 18 with the average age 22.

However it started, these guys aren't ready to hook up permanently, and she's too young. So when pregnancy happens, hey, they treat it like a speeding ticket. Pay the fine; take her to the clinic, no questions asked.

How about if I tell you that when a state enforces parental notification, not only abortions but pregnancies of minors go down. After the yelling, what's the first question a parent asks? Who's the guy? If she keeps it, that guy's got responsibility. Or maybe they'll report him to the law. So now these guys will zip it up or whatever it takes to avoid these consequences again.

The rest of you - vote yes on Prop. 85 to deter abuse, bring truth to light and make clinics accountable.

Robert Blundell

San Gabriel

___________________________


As originally written 9/25 - I made it personal to the "guys" but the editor decided to tone it down a bit, mostly changing pronouns and verb tense to make it

Let’s focus not on girls’ “choices”, but some guys, you know who you are, that hit on teenage girls. That’s right – you’re not surprised that of California girls under 18 who became pregnant, 70% say the guy was over 18, average age 22.

However it started, you’re not ready to hook up permanently and she’s too young. So when it happens, hey, you treat it like a speeding ticket. Pay the fine; take her to the clinic, no questions asked.

How about if I tell you that when a state enforces parental notification, not only abortions but pregnancies of minors go down. After the yelling, what’s the 1st question a parent asks? Who’s the guy? If she keeps it, you’ve got responsibility; anyhow, maybe they’ll report you. So now you'll zip it up or whatever it takes to avoid that.

The rest of you – vote yes on Prop 85 to deter abuse, bring truth to light and make clinics accountable.

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A Geneticist in Trouble - Molestation and Manipulation

Posted by RobertB on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 4:09:18 PM
Want to comment on William French Anderson's California conviction on child molestation
 USC Geneticist Pasadena Star News 7/20/2006
 , William French Anderson - Wikipedia,
The Scientist magazine 7/20/2006

and there was also a case in Maryland that was thrown out due to evidence technicalities.

There are many great researchers in the biotech field and perhaps Dr. Anderson was one of the best.  But is it hitting a man when he's down or pertinent reporting to note of his connections with the "hype and hope" extremes that border on the transhumanist perspective and wonder if manipulation of genes and dreams of mankind's limitless future is at all related to an ego that was proven in court to have manipulated and broken the innocence of a girl (daughter of one of his research staff!!).

Even his defense attorney said "Nothing about having an IQ of 176 means you have good judgment"

He was founding editor of Human Gene Therapy published by Mary Liebert Inc - Art Caplan is on the bioethics editorial board.

But I'd like to focus more on another Mary Liebert publication, Rejuvenation Research.  Aubrey De Grey, Michael West, William Haseltine, Arthur Caplan again, and Dr. Anderson.
All those characters are featured in Wesley Smith's Consumer Guide to a Brave New World as well as Brian Alexander's "raucous tour of the fast-fading borderland between fringe and mainstream science" Rapture: How Biotech Became the New Religion. 

Where indeed is the borderline between the advance of science and a world of genetic enhancement and talk of immortality?

In 1989, Dr Anderson talked about limits  (all references below from National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (web site at Georgetown). (underlined italics mine)


"Anderson, W. French. Human Gene Therapy: Why Draw a Line? Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 14(6): 681-693, December 1989.  Anderson believes we should draw a moral line at gene therapy for enhancement purposes. The basis for our uneasiness over enhancement therapy lies with the fear that genetic engineering could lead to changes in "human nature."

After his fame in pioneering gene therapy starting in 1990, how did he change?

Anderson, W. French. Human Gene Therapy. Science 256(5058): 808-813, 8 May 1992.  Hematologist and gene therapist Anderson describes the first 11 clinical protocols dealing with gene therapy or gene marking. He briefly surveys ethical and social considerations of gene therapy.

Anderson, W. French, and Theodore Friedmann. Gene Therapy: I. Strategies for Gene Therapy. In Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Revised Edition, pp. 907-914. Warren T. Reich, ed. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1995.  The authors describe three different types of somatic cell gene therapy - ex vivo, in situ, and in vivo - and the methods by which genes are transferred to an individual. They detail the criteria necessary for the development of germ-line(reproductive cell) therapy and explain the potential impact of such procedures on society and future generations.

Fletcher, John C., and Anderson, W. French. Germ-Line Gene Therapy: A New Stage of Debate. Law, Medicine and Health Care 20(1-2): 26-39, Spring-Summer 1992.  Fletcher and Anderson present an ethical argument that supports the approval of pre-embryo experiments, and compares ethical and social priorities of research in germ-line gene therapy to other human subjects research.

 
 

aaa




 

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How Faith saved the Atheist

Posted by RobertB on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 2:17:05 PM
Here's an article (WSJ registration may be required) on that you don't have to be religious to be pro-life but it may help you stay alive  How Faith saved the Atheist

(excerpt)

"Dr. Death" was just one of several. A new resident appeared the next day, this one a bit more diplomatic but again urging us to allow my father to "die with dignity." ... My father, 85, was heading ineluctably toward death. Though unconscious, his brain, as far as anyone could tell, had not been touched by either the cancer or the blood clot. He was not in a "persistent vegetative state" ... that magic point at which family members are required to pull the plug -- or risk the accusation that they are right-wing Christians.

I complained about all the death-with-dignity pressure to my father's doctor, an Orthodox Jew, who said that his religion forbids the termination of care but that he would be perfectly willing to "look the other way" if we wanted my father to die. We didn't. Then a light bulb went off in my head. We could devise a strategy to fend off the death-happy residents: We would tell them we were Orthodox Jews. My little ruse worked. During the few days after I announced this faux fact, it was as though an invisible fence had been drawn around my mother, my sister and me. No one dared mutter that hateful phrase "death with dignity."  Though my father was born to an Orthodox Jewish family, he is an avowed atheist who long ago had rejected his parents' ways. As I sat in the ICU, blips on the various screens the only proof that my father was alive, the irony struck me: My father, who had long ago rejected Orthodox Judaism, was now under its protection.

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Why the Progressive "Professional" Bioethicists Needs Us "Absolute Moralists" (more than we need them)

Posted by RobertB on Friday, July 14, 2006 2:24:59 PM
Actually I believe many "progressive" bioethicists are being sincere when they consider their approach less political than that of the fundamentalists and bio - Luddites.  That is because they understand that "professionals" need to deal with bioethical issues creating recommendations and procedures thru medical review committees and science councils.  If necessary, the judicial branch can get involved with deliberative review and further elucidation of rights.

Except for the funding of their projects, they see the involvement of the legislative and executive branch at the state and federal level as where political demogoguery occurs and this may be independent of whether Republican or Democrat dominates (see California Stem Cell Report blog on the Democrat controlled CA Legislature move to regulate the ESC funding and the independent agency and biotech research "industry" response.

More to the point of the title of my post, however, I say that bioethicists can do little to enforce their thoughts onto a society unless that society and government has an understanding of morality.  Even the principles of autonomy, beneficience, non-maleficience, and distributive justice which are the basis of bioethics are based on the deeper morality of liberty, fairness, equality, the Golden Rule.  The secular procedures will stand or fall on the absolute principles of philosophy and religion.
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Testimony

Posted by RobertB on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 3:24:19 PM



Wesley Smith's testimony against AB 651 PAS

Hyperlinks work!!

Testing, testing.

 

 

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A New Blog - Southern CA Bioethics

Posted by RobertB on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 3:13:58 PM
 
Hopefully a center for Christian thought and action on bioethics issues facing California, the nation, and the world. See also rb2bb.blogspot.com
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Posted by RobertB on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 3:10:31 PM
Hopefully a center for Christian thought and action on bioethics issues facing California, the nation, and the world.
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