From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Wed Nov 13 2002 - 11:16:07 MST
My perennially optimistic and caloric-restricted acquaintance Spike puts out some positivism. No, I
didn't go drive in circles today, but I will be productive in some way. M
2002-11-12 22:10:14, spike66 <spike66@attbi.com> wrote:
>Just when I was about to give up on Michael
>Crichton, he comes up with a plethora of terrific
>scripts this season. First there was Dr. Ramano's
>little run-in with the helicopter {which I have been
>asked to not talk about}, now a terrific little subplot
>about an extropian medical student named Dr. Nathan,
>a 40-something medical student with Parkinson's
>disease, who is taking a rotation thru the ER.
>
>A 26 year old patient has an incurable and fatal
>genetic disease which has destroyed her lungs.
>Dr. Carter has given her no hope. She is tired
>of being sick and has signed a Do Not Recussitate
>order. Dr. Nathan, the Parkinson's aflicted
>med student, brings flowers to the dying patient,
>then gives her a pep talk. He convinces her to
>keep fighting, much to the dismay of Carter, who
>is the resident and Nathan's boss. Carter calls
>Nathan into an adjoining room for an ass chewing:
>
>Carter: What are you doing?
>
>Nathan: She didn't have all the facts.
>
>Carter: Do you know what it will take just to keep
>her alive until transplant? If she even qualifies
>for a transplant? And we can find a suitable match?
>
>Nathan: It's not worth it? When there is a shot
>at a cure?
>
>Carter: She's suffocating, thet's her reality.
>
>Nathan: There are a lot of realities. Stem cell
>research is a reality.
>
>Carter: Stem cells?
>
>Nathan: Its coming. Whether the government approves
>it or not, its coming, you know that. Embryonic stem
>cells can be used to grow any tissue in the human body.
>
>Carter: What, you told her that we could grow her
>a new lung?
>
>Nathan: She's got a genetic disease. Stem cells can
>fix the defect at the genetic level.
>
>Carter: Ya, maybe in fifty years.
>
>Nathan: Five years. The science is there in five
>years if we get past all the political posturing.
>
>Carter: Do you know what it took for her to face
>her mortality?
>
>Nathan: I think I do.
>
>Carter: For me to convince her father to accept it?
>
>Nathan: Oh so this is about YOUR time?
>
>Carter: No, this is about you. Going in there
>with your own agenda, and giving her false hope.
>
>Nathan: Its not false hope.
>
>Carter: The flowers were an interesting touch.
>
>Nathan: You gave her ten minutes.
>
>Carter: There is such a thing as dying with dignity.
>
>Nathan: Every time a woman goes for in vitro, harvests
>eggs, there are extra blastocysts.
>
>Carter: I know the issues, but shes suffering. She doesn't
>care about politics.
>
>Nathan: Its the politics that are killing her. MI in one,
>cured, all heart disease gone. Cancer in four, Alzheimers
>disease, cured. The spinal cord injury this morning, cured.
>
>Carter: Parkinson's disease?
>
>Nathan: We are out of business, pal.
>
>Carter: I would really like to believe that.
>
>Nathan: Pack up all this crap and haul it away.
>
>Carter: I would really like to believe in miracles. She's
>dying, Nathan. The only question is, how well.
>
>Nathan: She's 26 years old. There IS NO dying well.
>You're giving up. {Nathan walks away}
>
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