That was the 70s; this is a new century--and this culture grows
progressively more irrational with each passing day. If someone "just
did" the test-tube thing today, they'd be locked up. (Okay, maybe not-
-but surely if they swapped heads--and lose their license as well,
which would be the end of imitators.) Do you remember the pregnant
woman in a COMA whose HUSBAND wanted to abort the baby to save his
wife's life? Some religious group (as I recall--anyone have details?)
steps in, files a LAWSUIT--and nothing can be done until their suit
is decided (an effort to dismiss the suit immediately failed)! What
standing have they in the matter?
If we had such a person as you suggest get before the cameras there'd
be a lawsuit to halt the procedure before he left the studio, and he
would die waiting on the final decision. With the right timing, it
would be outlawed before the decision. Certainly any doc fool enough
to say he'd do it would be summarily informed he placed his AMA
license (if any) in jeopardy. He might even lose it on the eve of the
operation--canceling the operation.
I'm not saying this is the way it should be--but this is the way it
is. And enough with the monkeys--use volunteer people.
LOL on the cremation.
jm
On 8 Apr 2001, at 21:34, Spike Jones wrote:
> John, do you remember the flap about test tube babies in the 70s?
> All we really had to do is just DO IT. Then a few years later, everyone
> could see these children that some considered unethically conceived.
> They were regular people, who had souls (whatever that means),
> they were real people. The debate went away. I seldom hear anyone
> protesting in-vitro fertilization today.
>
> What we need is a body transplant patient to get in front
> of the TV and say "I am paralysed, but I am a still a person,
> I have feelings, and I am alive because of a novel
> medical technique." The debate would fade.
>
> > Suppose, for example, someone signs off on the donor thing for a
> > fresh corpse--only to learn later that the corpse is walking around
> > with someone else's head attached. suppose further that they sue,
> > saying "I didn't sign off on this; I want the body cremated."
>
> Easy. Tell them that the body *will* be cremated,
> whenever the head now attached to it is finished with it.
>
John Marlow
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