Bibliography
on Ethical Issues
(Both fiction and non-fiction; reviews
taken from Booklist, Library Journal, amazon.com, Novelist, Critical Survey
of Long Fiction, etc.)
This list is growing daily. Check back often for updates.
Please email
us with any suggestions of any book titles you think should be added.
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DeAngelis, Camille. Mary Modern. This
compelling and horrific novel applies modern science to Shelley's Frankenstein,
revealing again the awful truth about the relationship of creator to creation.
Lucy's fascinating story of love and ambition will also engender much discussion
of bioethics, social responsibility, personal freedom, and the biological nature
of memory. (from amazon.com).
Huxley, Aldous. Brave new world.
Six hundred years into the future, humans are bred by cloning, and "mother" and "father" are forbidden words. Originally published in 1932, Huxley's terrifying vision of a controlled and emotionless future "Utopian" society is truly startling in its prediction of modern scientific and cultural phenomena, including test-tube babies and rampant drug abuse.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never
let me go.
Set in late 1990s
Mulisch, Harry. The procedure.
In the late sixteenth century,
Kerner, Charlotte. Blueprint.
"I don't like the word clone.
I prefer to call myself blueprint." Thus begins the memoir of Siri Sellin, a clone of her
mother, concert pianist-composer Iris Sellin, who,
having learned she has MS, decides to immortalize her talent in a
daughter-twin. Siri, just as talented as her mother,
is angry at the parent who has robbed her of her uniqueness. Blueprint,
originally written in German, is a fascinating examination of the ethical and
scientific issues surrounding cloning--the psychological, sociological, and
physical ramifications of human replication as they impact both the original
and the duplicate.
Wilhelm, Kate. Where
late the sweet birds sang.
This chronicles the post-holocaust
attempts of humanity's remnants to combat sterility through cloning. The
author, Kate Wilhelm, posits that multiple and simultaneous cloning of an
individual prevents the development of separate egos in the clones, and results
instead in the formation of a group identity. She argues this point and the
consequent deterioration of the clone society quite convincingly. The
successful execution of this idea would alone make a fine novel. When supported
by Wilhelm's lush, vivid imagery and gripping drama it becomes a masterpiece.
Damon Knight (Wilhelm's husband and himself a famous author) claimed that
the best SF evokes in the reader a "sense of wonder", a reverence of
mankind's potential- and engenders despair in the bosom of the aspiring writer
who can never hope to duplicate this feat. The inspiration of this awe is the
greatest virtue of "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang", and entitles it
to a position among the genre's highest achievements.
Farmer, Nancy. In
the house of the scorpions.
In a future where
humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire
nestled between
Wilmut, Ian and Roger Highfield. After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human
Cloning. (NON-FICTION)
Scientist Ian Wilmut describes the
process by which he and other researchers at
Pence, Gregory E. Cloning
After Dolly: Who’s Still Afraid? (NON-FICTION)
As the #1 topic in bioethics, cloning has made big news
since Dolly’s announced birth in 1998. In a new book building on his classic,
Who's Afraid of Human Cloning?, pioneering bioethicist
Gregory E. Pence continues to advocate a reasoned view of cloning. Beginning
with his surreal experiences as an expert witness before Congressional and
Klotzko, Arlene Judith. A Clone of Your Own?
The Science and Ethics of Cloning (NON-FICTION)
An examination of the technology involved in creating clones
of human beings, the first successful cloning of a mammal in 1996, and the
ethics of cloning.
Chorost,
Michael. Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human.
True story of a deaf man who chose to have a
computer surgically embedded in his skull to artificially restore his hearing.
Irving, John. Cider
House Rules.
This novel concerns,
as the title suggests, the rules by which people are to conduct their lives,
but just as the list of rules posted in the cider house (Please don’t smoke in
bed or use candles…) is consistently ignored, so Dr. Wilbur Larch, one of the
novel’s central characters, breaks the rules by performing abortions in rural
Maine in the 1920s. Wilbur Larch is no
back-room abortionist, but a skilled obstetrician who also runs an orphanage
for the children whose mothers prefer to give birth, and he seeks to have the
children adopted. Homer Wells, the other
central character, is an orphan who is never adopted, and who grows up in the
orphanage absorbing the most basic lesson taught there: that one must “be of
use.” His final usefulness is to replace
Dr. Larch when the elderly man dies, but even here he breaks the rules, for
although he is a skilled obstetrician and abortionist, he has no medical
degree, and so takes over the position with an assumed identity. Partly because of the precarious nature of
his own existence, Homer has opposed abortion all his life, until he feels he
must perform one for a black teenager who has been raped by her father.
Kincaid's third novel (after Annie
John) is presented as the mesmerizing, harrowing, richly metaphorical
autobiography of 70-year-old Xuela Claudette
Richardson. Earthy, intractably antisocial, acridly introspective, morbidly
obsessed with history and identity, conquest and colonialism, language and
silence, Xuela recounts her life on the
Fast, Howard. Trial of Abigail Goodman.
Fast, author of over 80 published
works, now takes on the cause of women's rights--specifically the right to
choose abortion- -and produces a lively courtroom drama, set in an unnamed
southern state. A 41-year-old professor, having (presumably) had an abortion,
is on trial for her life as a newly minted law makes abortion a crime
punishable by death. ``Yesterday we were a sleepy backwater town. Today we're
the hub of the universe,'' says presiding Judge George Lee Benson--a dream
judge, hard as nails, fair, with a razor mind able to slice through windy
detours and elaborate legal maneuvers. Outside the courtroom where Abigail
Goodman is on trial are reporters from major foreign and American newspapers
(they'll contribute sidebar versions of events). There are also bused-in
activists from the pro's and con's. The question raised here remains--whether
the fierce anti- abortion movement is angrier for the sake of the unborn or at
the emancipation of women.
O’Brien, Edna. Down by the river.
A few years ago,
Lambrichs, Louise L. Hannah's diary
A married woman living (and concealing her Jewishness) in Paris under German occupation agrees to abort a second pregnancy but lives thereafter less among her surviving real family than in the world of the child who might have been (Louise), whose unlived life she records in a plaintive fictional diary. Lambrichs’s sensitive concentration on Hannah’s embattled emotions and imagination makes for a moving study of how obsession can console and heal, even as it distorts reality.
Howard, Laurence. Passion of Maggie Higgins, The
Gynecologist Maggie Higgins is complex: intelligent, honest, outspoken, loving, vulnerable. She has chosen to work in a family planning clinic, performing abortions, living her ideals. Her political beliefs are not abstractions to be debated but principles to be followed daily. Dreaming of running for Congress and having the power to fight for women's rights as a legislator, Maggie is as passionate about politics as she is about her lover, Victor. Howard uses the story of her life to examine the political issues of women's reproductive rights--issues that show up not only in the lives of the women Maggie treats but also in her relationship with Victor. The inspirational novel, based on the life of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, presents the woman's side of its concerns without denigrating or blaming men and without oversimplifying the complex issues surrounding reproduction in modern society.
Lee, Marie Myung-Ok.
Somebody's Daughter: A Novel
Young adult novelist Lee (Finding My
Voice, etc.) explores a Korean-born girl's complicated journey to define
her identity in her poignant adult debut. Adopted by a white
Leavitt, Caroline. Girls in
Trouble : A Novel
Leavitt's uneven but earnest eighth novel examines the emotional price a bright
Massachusetts teen pays when she chooses "open" adoption for a baby
she gives birth to at 16. It's 1987, and smart Sara Rothman has fallen in love
with "black sheep" Danny Slade. When he vanishes after learning she's
pregnant, Sara gives the baby up. Leavitt (Coming Back to Me) poignantly
depicts the consequences of that choice for everyone concerned: Sara, who
misses her baby and Danny both; Abby and Jack, Sara's well-meaning parents;
Danny, the young father; George and Eva Rivers, the attentive but naive
adoptive couple; and Anne, the child. At first, Sara visits the Riverses daily-she loves Anne, and the Riverses
had cared for her while she was pregnant. But her presence becomes intrusive,
and eventually, Eva takes a stand: "We adopted Anne," she tells Sara.
"We didn't adopt you." Sara then makes a desperate attempt to steal
the infant, and when she's found, the Riverses move
and deny Sara visiting rights ("Open adoptions are only enforceable in
Oregon," a lawyer tells her). Fifteen years pass, and Leavitt's focus
wavers; a fuzzy reunion between Danny and Sara is particularly unconvincing.
The novel's portrait of dreamy, adolescent Anne and her relationship with the
older Riverses is sharper, as is the realistic, bumpy
reunion of birth mother and daughter. An unflinching depiction of maternal need
and the dynamics of adoption, this tale is a sharp reminder of the importance
of honesty in life decisions.
Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies.
Tally Youngblood lives in a
futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly
until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into
pleasure-seeking "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation,
Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the
false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect
with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious
objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities,
Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots–or
remain forever "ugly." Tally's adventuresome spirit helps her locate
Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful
rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living
a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that
threatens to blow the rebels' cover. Ethical concerns will provide a good
source of discussion as honesty, justice, and free will are all oppressed in
this well-conceived dystopia. Characterization, which flirts so openly with the
importance of teen self-concept, is strong, and although lengthy, the novel is
highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic
technologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies.
Westerfeld, Scott. Pretties.
In this highly anticipated sequel to the book, Uglies, Tally Youngblood struggles to retain her mental acuity after undergoing the operation that transformed her into a Pretty. While in the renegade Ugly community, Tally learned that along with cosmetic enhancements, new Pretties are given brain lesions that leave them in a perpetual state of lazy vanity. Tally volunteered to take a drug developed to cure the lesions, but now that she is a Pretty, she has forgotten her promise. A coded message leads her to some pills and a letter that she wrote to herself before her transformation, and after swallowing the cure, she is catapulted into a dangerous new adventure, in which she discovers that the peace and happiness of Pretty society come with a terrible price. Riveting and compulsively readable, this action-packed sequel does not disappoint; it is just as good as its predecessor.
Djerassi, Carl. Menachem’s
Seed: a novel.
"Melanie
Laidlaw, 35, a childless American widow, directs fund-giving by a foundation
for reproductive biology. At a conference in
Atwood, Margaret. Orxy and Crake.
This is a triple whammy of runaway social inequality, genetic technology and catastrophic climate change which has finally culminated in an apocalyptic event. As Jimmy, apparently the last human being on earth, makes his way back to the compound for supplies, the reader is transported backwards toward that cataclysmic event, its full dimensions gradually revealed.
Cook, Robin. Marker.
Investigating a series of deaths that have taken place among seemingly healthy young people after routine surgeries, doctors Montgomery and Stapleton confront institutional politics that block them from proving that the deaths were intentional. Though it seems impossible to determine why and how the patients are dying, they come to suspect that not only are the deaths related - they're intentional, suggesting the work of a remarkably clever serial killer with a very unusual motive, involving frightening ties to both developing genomic medicine and the economics of modern-day health care.
Russell, Mary Doria. The sparrow.
The Sparrow is the story of a
charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz,
who leads a twenty-first century scientific mission to a newly discovered
extraterrestrial culture. Sandoz and his companions
are prepared to endure isolation, hardship and death, but nothing can prepare
them for the civilization they encounter, or for the tragic misunderstanding
that brings the mission to a catastrophic end. Once considered a living saint, Sandoz returns alone to Earth physically and spiritually
maimed, the mission's sole survivor, only to be accused of heinous crimes and
blamed for the mission's failure. In clean, effortless prose and with
captivating flashes of wit, Mary Russell creates memorable characters who
navigate the world of exciting ideas and disturbing moral issues without ever
losing their humanity or humor.
Levi, Primo. The periodic table.
Lewis, C. S. That
hideous strength.
The final book in C.S. Lewis's
acclaimed Space Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, That Hideous Strength concludes
the adventures of the matchless Dr. Ransom. Finding himself in a world of
superior alien beings and scientific experiments run amok, Dr. Ransom struggles
with questions of ethics and morality, applying age-old wisdom to a brave new
universe dominated by science.
Lewis, C. S. Perelandra.
Lewis, C. S. Out of the silent planet
Walters, Mark Jerome. Six
Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them. (NON-FICTION)
Explores the connections between human degradation of the
natural environment and the increase in modern epidemics. Explored are the
stories of the spread of mad cow disease, HIV/AIDS, a new strain of salmonella
bacterium, Lyme disease, hantavirus, and
Stebbins, Michael. Sex, Drugs & DNA: Science’s
Taboos Confronted. (NON-FICTION)
The taboos referenced by the
subtitle are the sanctions against scientists talking plainly to the public
about their work and their concerns. Stebbins has had enough of them and breaks
ranks to passionately, revealingly, often less-than-gracefully counter the
threats to biology and medicine posed by general American stupidity about
science, public health, and science education. After a chapter outlining the
typical American scientist's life (more anxious and far less likely to be
lucrative than the typical American physician's), Stebbins lays out the truth
and flays conservative propaganda and policies about stem cell research,
cloning, genetic engineering, contraception and STDs, bioterrorism, the
potential for pandemics, global warming, and other matters that wouldn't be
controversial, or in some cases even problematic, if it weren't for mistaken,
misinformed policies and venal corporations. Corporations and policies come
even more directly under fire in the chapters "Drugs,"
"Healthcare," and "Science Education." To be sure,
Stebbins' effort is an anti-Bush--administration diatribe. It is far superior
to the rest because it argues from fact and knowledge, not hype and politics.
Weiner, Jonathan. His Brother’s Keeper: A Story from
the Edge of Medicine. (NON-FICTION)
This is the story of a young entrepreneur who gambles on the risky science
of gene therapy to try to save his brother's life.
Stephen Heywood was twenty-nine years old when he
learned that he was dying of ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight his
older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race
to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of
their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine.
The book brings home for all of us the hopes and fears of the new
biology. In this dramatic and suspenseful narrative, Jonathan Weiner gives us a
remarkable portrait of science and medicine today. We learn about gene therapy,
stem cells, brain vaccines, and other novel treatments for such nerve-death
diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's -- diseases that afflict millions,
and touch the lives of many more.
Turney, Jon. Frankenstein's footsteps : science,
genetics and popular culture. (NON-FICTION)
This book is a combination of
history, biology, and genetics, literary and film criticism, and bioethics
debate. A senior lecturer in science communication in the department of science
and technology studies at University College London, Turney
has many interesting things to say about how biological science is communicated
to the public, how the story of Frankenstein has conjured up in popular culture
certain images of science and scientists, and how those images have changed
over time. Frankenstein's creature is
emblematic of superstition and ignorance about biomedical science. Almost every
substantial advance in the field, from tissue culture to transplantation, and
now cloning, has been misunderstood by ethicists and policy makers with little
understanding of science, by a public ignorant of the fundamentals of biology,
and by science writers seeking sensational stories. This book is original,
provocative, instructive, and consistently interesting.
Nestle, Marion. Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and
Bioterrorism. (NON-FICTION)
"Food safety is
a matter of intense public concern, and for good reason. Millions of annual cases
of food "poisonings" raise alarm not only about the food served in
restaurants and fast-food outlets but also about foods bought in supermarkets.
The introduction of genetically modified foods-immediately dubbed "Frankenfoods"-only adds to the general sense of
unease. Finally, the events of September 11, 2001, heightened fears by exposing
the vulnerability of food and water supplies to attacks by bioterrorists. How
concerned should we be about such problems? Who is responsible for preventing
them? Who benefits from ignoring them? Who decides? Marion Nestle, author of
the critically acclaimed Food Politics, argues that ensuring safe food involves
more than washing hands or cooking food to higher temperatures. It involves
politics. When it comes to food safety, billions of dollars are at stake, and
industry, government, and consumers collide over issues of values, economics,
and political power-and not always in the public interest. Although the debates
may appear to be about science, Nestle maintains that they really are about
control: Who decides when a food is safe? She demonstrates how powerful food
industries oppose safety regulations, deny accountability, and blame consumers
when something goes wrong, and how century-old laws for ensuring food safety no
longer protect our food supply. Accessible, informed, and even-handed, Safe
Food is for anyone who cares how food is produced and wants to know more about
the real issues underlying today's headlines." (from amazon.com)
Baillie, Harold, and
Timothy Casey. Is human nature
obsolete? : genetics, bioengineering, and the future of the human condition.
(NON FICTION)
As our scientific and technical abilities expand at breathtaking speeds, concern that modern genetics and bioengineering are leading us to a posthuman future is growing. Is Human Nature Obsolete? poses the overarching question of what it is to be human against the background of these current advances in biotechnology. Its perspective is philosophical and interdisciplinary rather than technical; the focus is on questions of goals and values rather than the specifics of medical or scientific practice.
The authors -- all distinguished scholars in their
fields -- take on questions about technology's goals and values that are often
ignored or sidelined in the face of rapid scientific advances and the highly
specialized nature of technical knowledge. The essays included represent a rich
variety of thought, ranging from finely nuanced philosophical and theological
arguments to historical studies and cultural commentaries. Several explore the
historical background of today's biotechnology: Timothy Casey traces such
developments as the emergence of cybernetic humanity from Cartesian dualism,
and Diane Paul presents the history of "positive" versus coerced
eugenics. Jean Bethke Elshtain
discusses cloning as a "messianic project" to perfect the body and
exclude natural diversity -- giving as an example the elimination of Down
Syndrome as an acceptable human type -- while Harold Baillie calls for an
examination of the metaphysical roots of personhood. Robert Proctor finds no
evidence in paleontology for any "essence of humanity," and Tom
Shannon argues against materialist reductionism. Addressing social concerns,
Lisa Sowle Cahill finds the possibility of a
political solution to the problems raised by genetic engineering in Catholic
teachings on social justice, and Langdon Winner looks critically at the
"scientific enthusiasts of a posthuman
future." Taken as a whole, the book provides a humanistic overview of a
subject too often considered only in its technological aspect.
Pinker,
Steven. The blank slate : the modern
denial of human nature. (NON FICTION)
Our conceptions of human nature affect everything
aspect of our lives, from child-rearing to politics to morality to the arts.
Yet many fear that scientific discoveries about innate patterns of thinking and
feeling may be used to justify inequality, to subvert social change, and to
dissolve personal responsibility.
In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and
its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals
have denied the existence of human nature and instead have embraced three
dogmas: The Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), The Noble Savage
(people are born good and corrupted by society), and The Ghost in the Machine
(each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma
carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to
discredit the scientists who are now challenging them.
Pinker provides calm in the stormy debate by disentangling the political and
moral issues from the scientific ones. He shows that equality, compassion,
responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about an
innately organized psyche. Pinker shows that the new sciences of mind, brain,
genes, and evolution, far from being dangerous, are complementing observations
about the human condition made by millennia of artists and philosophers. All this
is done in the style that earned his previous books many prizes and worldwide
acclaim: irreverent wit, lucid exposition, and startling insight on matters
great and small.
Ridley, Matt. Nature via
nurture : genes, experience, and what makes us human. (NON FICTION)
Following his highly praised and bestselling book Genome:
The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley has written a
brilliant and profound book about the roots of human behavior. Nature via
Nurture explores the complex and endlessly intriguing question of what
makes us who we are.
In February 2001 it was announced that the human
genome contains not 100,000 genes, as originally postulated, but only 30,000.
This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply
not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we
must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on
the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Matt Ridley argues that the
emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on
genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad
structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social
cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
Published fifty years after the discovery of the
double helix of DNA, Nature via Nurture chronicles a revolution in our
understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the
partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the
human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and
culture. Nature via Nurture is an enthralling up-to-the-minute account
of how genes build brains to absorb experience.
Moore,
David. The dependent gene : the fallacy of nature/nurture. (NON FICTION)
Western assessment of humankind has long involved
genetics and Darwinian theory: "good" genes yield beauty and charm;
"bad" genes are blamed for depression and violence. Drawing on recent
work by many developmentalists, Moore, a professor of
psychology at
Djerassi, Carl. The Bourbaki
gambit.
Djerassi's latest novel, a love story with a clever scientific twist,
concerns a practical joke played by four scientists, who create an imposter to
take credit for an important biomedical discovery. Seeking professional
revenge, they create Professor Diana Skordylis, a
composite of themselves, in order to make a statement about age discrimination,
peer recognition, the plight of women scientists, and the conflicts of
collaboration. Readers should not be deterred by the scientific subject matter;
Djerassi's plot line is understandable as well as
enjoyable. This prolific author, a respected professor of chemistry at
Turner, Frederick. Genesis. (Epic Poetry)
Though it is written in verse by a noted poet and though it really
is an epic poem, still this story is readable, interesting, and stimulating
science fiction.
Chance Van Riebeck, having established a giant
bioengineering multinational corporation in the twenty-first century, illegally
begins transforming Mars into a living planet. Author Frederick Turner
extrapolates from current technology to envision computer modeling of the
evolutionary development of individual organisms. This technique allows the
researcher to create and transform ecosystems quickly. By this means, a
suitable planet can be made humanly habitable in short order.
Opposed to Chance is his estranged wife, Gaea. She changed her name from
Rose when she left her husband, experienced a conversion, and became leader of
the
The first four acts of the poem detail this struggle and the victory of
Chance's followers. The final act is the most poetic, presenting a new,
revealed philosophy appropriate to the life humanity creates on Mars. In this
view, the cosmos is a goddess branching like a tree or rose toward
self-consciousness, slowly and grandly unfolding in time. Though there are many
echoes of the great epic poems, this act most clearly points toward John Milton
and Dante, notably in the image of the cosmos as a rose.
Turner's first science-fiction epic poem was THE NEW WORLD. Both works offer a
new dimension to science fiction, uniting beauty of language with imaginative
extrapolation and exciting narrative.
Healy, David. The
Creation of Psycholpharmacology. (NON-FICTION)
“In their short
lifespan [antipsychotics] have revolutionized
psychiatry, converting it from a medical specialty based on psychotherapy to
one based on biochemistry. Yet as Healy's analysis shows, commerce has been as
influential as science in this transformation--perhaps more so. He believes
that because the success of psychiatric drugs, the choice of treatment options
is largely dependent on the financial preferences of the pharmaceutical
industry. For example, the author argues that "randomized controlled trials"
of drugs are favored by the pharmaceutical industry because they allow products
to be marketed to a wide audience, but what is desperately needed is more
research on the effects of medications on more specific types of patients.”
Lightman, Alan, ed. Living
with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery. (NON-FICTION)
Science and technology continually
transform our experience and society in ways that often seem to be beyond our
control. Today different areas of research and innovation are advancing
synergistically and multiplying the rate and magnitude of technological and
societal change. As the power of technology continues to accelerate, who will
be the master of whom? In Living with the Genie, leading writers and
thinkers come together to confront this question from many perspectives,
through provocative essays that open the door to a new dialogue on how
technology may be changing what it means to be human, in ways we scarcely
comprehend.
PLAGUES, EPIDEMICS
AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Barnes, Peter. Red Noses.
This 1970s British play appeared very shortly before AIDS became the plague
of the century. The playwright chose to explore responses to the bubonic plague
epidemics in Medieval Europe. One solution to the unsolvable onslaught of this
horrid disease was to travel making comedy with a group of sympathetic
followers. The characters presented by Barnes meet most if not all of the
described reactions to deadly epidemics for which there was no known effective
treatment or cure. The irony of the play's appearance is that it antedated by
just a few years the appearance of HIV/AIDS--yet another "plague"
about which there was little understanding and much panic.
Used as a timely re-creation of an ancient plague, Red Noses puts
in temporal context the human reactions of fear, hatred, scapegoating,
and panic and demonstrates these responses to be ubiquitous. No one carefully
reading this play, and discussing its contemporaneous implications, can fail to
relate to the timelessness of human response to any fearsome tragedy not yet
understood.
This recent novel is flawed in some ways, but lively and provocative. I have
used it once and plan to use it again in a section of my undergraduate
literature and medicine course focused on "plagues, epidemics, and public
health." Based on an actual incident of plague in an English village, it
invites readers to imagine the situation of a young woman deeply involved in
her own loss and sorrow who is called by necessity to shoulder responsibility
in time of public health crisis. She's a memorable character, and many of the
scenes are resonant with the emotional complexity of real human tragedy.
Students' responses, even the negative ones, are lively, testifying to the ways
the novelist's sense of the dramatic moment and eye for pregnant detail works
to make an otherwise remote historical situation imaginatively available.
Faillace, Linda. Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm. Linda Faillance chronicles her family's struggle against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which claimed the Faillance's sheep carried mad cow disease and slaughtered their flocks, destroying their entire livelihood, despite the Faillance's proof that the government's claims were false.
Saramago, José.
Blindness.
Imagine an entire country suddenly and unexplainably struck blind. The
epidemic of blindness is so contagious that only one human being's sight is
spared. What might happen to society? How would people live? Could they even
survive? In this novel, controversial author Jos&233; Saramago
utilizes blindness as a powerful metaphor. Modern society may already be
blinded by fear, greed, and spiritual lethargy. If so, how do we regain our
clarity of vision? How do we really know the truth?
I am currently studying blindness in my research on the effects of disease on individuals and society as represented in literature. This novel is a key literary text that examines the very essence of human nature and morality. I predict that Blindness will eventually be recognized as one of the most important works of literature ever written on the subject of epidemics, along with our emotional and ethical responses to them.
Kirby, David. Evidence of harm : mercury in vaccines and
the autism epidemic – a medical controversy. (NON-FICTION)
Did the injection of organic mercury directly into the developing systems of small children cause irreparable harm? It's a plausible proposition, and a hugely important question. Why did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allow mercury exposures from childhood vaccines to more than double between 1988 and 1992 without bothering to calculate cumulative totals and their potential risks? Why, for that matter, was there a corresponding spike in the reported cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)? Why did autism gorw from a relatively rare incidence of 1 in every 10,000 births in the 1980s to 1 in 500 in the late 1990s. Why did it continue to increase to 1 in 250 in 2000 and then 1 in 166 today? This book explores the heated controversy over what many have called an "epidemic" of afflicted children. The author traces the struggle of several families to understand how and why their once-healthy kids rapidly descended into silence or disturbed behavior, often accompanied by severe physical illness. Alarmed by the levels of mercury in the vaccine schedule, these families sought answers to no avail. In the end, as research is beginning to demonstrate, the questions raised have significant implications for all children, and for those entrusted to oversee our national health.
Hausler, Thomas. Viruses vs. Superbugs: A Solution to the Antibiotics Crisis?
(NON-FICTION)
Once upon a time, before penicillin, medicine's perpetual battle with
bacterial infection was waged with biological weapons. Phages--viruses that
kill bacteria but are harmless to humans--were used to perform duties for which
they seemed uniquely destined. The story of bacteriophage
therapy, which began in the early twentieth century, is dramatic and
frustrating. The drama lies in Swedish science editor Hausler's
account of how the ideas of an arrogant rogue scientist, Felix d'Herelle, flew in the faces of his contemporaries and how
he persevered to prove his hypotheses, only to see his discovery put on a back
burner, at least in the West, when modern antibiotics burst upon the scene.
That development would have been fine if it had meant a conclusion to struggle
against the likes of strep and staph infections. The
problem is, however, that greater and greater numbers of serious bacteria are
becoming antibiotic resistant. With nearly 90,000 Americans dying each year
because antibiotic treatments are no longer effective, something must be done.
Hausler proposes renewed investigation into bacteriophage therapy but paints a dismal picture of its
likelihood. It is, he says, effective and organic but unlikely to become a cash
cow for pharmaceutical companies.
Warren, Christian. Brush with
Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning. (NON-FICTION)
Offers a comprehensive history of lead poisoning in the
Greger, Michael, M.D. Bird Flu: A Virus of Our
Own Hatching. (NON-FICTION)
The author explores the underlying conditions that would create a bird flu pandemic, examines the ways in which the public
can protect themselves and their families, and describes what can be done to
reduce the likelihood of spreading this disease.
Allen, Arthur. Vaccine: The
Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver. (NON-FICTION)
Traces the history and development of vaccines, the role
of military and medical authority in the introduction of vaccines to the
public, and the controversies over the use of some vaccines.
Pope, Robert. Illness and Healing :
Images of Cancer Robert Pope
(Art Book)
Robert Pope, a young Canadian artist diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's
disease, underwent several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. When feeling
well enough, he sketched pictures of his hospital experiences. Later, he
completed the drawings and wrote commentaries to accompany some of the images.
A number of the drawings are seen literally from Pope's hospital bed
perspective--legs and feet stretched out on the bed, the rest of his body not
visible.
Illness experiences are often chronicled in memoir and poetry, but visual
representation is a potent additional genre. I use this book with fourth year
medical students in my elective on borderlands and medicine. Students discuss
their interpretations of these images before reading Pope's commentaries. They
are struck by the difference between their perceptions of Pope's images, and
his comments. While viewers often feel that Pope's drawings reflect sadness and
isolation, Pope's texts emphasize healing and hope. The book thus embodies both
the suffering and the need for hope felt by many patients.
Because fourth year students have clinical experience, many of the drawings
have particular significance for them. Viewing a drawing of several physicians
huddled in conference, while in the near distance a patient in his room
receives visitors, students conclude that if Pope
painted this scene, patients probably overhear such conversations. Pope's book
makes vividly real to student physicians other elements that influence a
patient's experience of illness and hospitalization--the role that visitors,
family, and nurses play; and fear of the unknown during medical testing and
treatment.
Djerassi, Carl. Cantor’s
Dilemma.
Cancer research, insect biochemistry, and cell biology are not
generally considered subjects for novelists. However, when the author is also a
professor of chemistry at
Davis, Devra. The Secret History of the War on Cancer.
Offers a decade-by-decade overview of how leaders of industries controlling the production and distribution of cancer-causing materials and products have tried to downplay research on cancer prevention and prevent the public from discovering environmental causes of cancer and the ways they can be avoided.
Grisham, John. The Runaway Jury.
Grisham is either remarkably prescient or
just plain lucky; because with public concerns about the tobacco companies
heating up, and two major nonfiction books currently garnering a lot of
attention, he has come up with a tobacco-suit novel that lights up the
courtroom. In a
Kessler, David. A
question of intent : a great American battle with a deadly industry. (NON-FICTION)
This is the David-and-Goliath story
of how an American bureaucrat took on the tobacco industry--and helped topple
it. The hero is David Kessler, head of the Food and Drug Administration for
seven years under Presidents Bush and Clinton.
Much of the book deals with the routine business
of the FDA, but the driving force behind Kessler's narrative is how he slowly
woke up to the possibility of regulating cigarettes. "It is too easy to be
swayed by the argument that tobacco is a legal product and should be treated
like any other," he writes. "A product that kills people--when used
as intended--is different. No one should be allowed to make a profit from
that." His story is a lesson in
To say Kessler and
his team of FDA regulators "defeated" Big Tobacco is an
overstatement: they were part of a broader effort that included trial lawyers,
consumer groups, and crusading journalists, and the industry hasn't exactly
gone away. But they were instrumental in forcing tobacco companies to admit
that nicotine is addictive and cigarettes cause cancer, and in bringing about a
sea change in the industry's legal and popular standing. Kessler now believes
in regulation so tight it will strangle Big Tobacco forever: "If our goal
is to halt this manmade epidemic," he writes, "the tobacco industry,
as currently configured, needs to be dismantled."
His attempt to
regulate tobacco as a drug was met with all of the industry's now notorious
practices: legal stonewalling, manipulation of "bought" elected
officials, intimidation, and outright lies. Kessler tackled all of these
challenges with the vigor of a man perhaps outgunned but not outmaneuvered. At
the height the FDA's legal battle, U.S. News and World Report called Kessler
"somebody you can tell your children about" and compared him to the
protagonists of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and To Kill a
Mockingbird. Like those classic American stories, A Question of Intent is
about the search for truth, the choices people make, and right and wrong. It is
about moral courage.
Schaler,
Jeffrey and Magda Schaler. Smoking : who has the right? (NON-FICTION)
Psychologist Jeffrey Schaler and
health policy analyst Magda Schaler
present the best arguments on the smoking debate to assist readers on both
sides of the issue in forming their own conclusions about the “right to smoke”
versus the widely asserted public health goal of a tobacco-free society. Includes an article entitled “Passive
smoking, scientific method, and corrupted science.”
Chlovechok, James
Game face.
Chlovechok is an author, physician, professional boxer and owner of a
private fitness center. Founder of the Ohio Sports Medicine Institute, he is
also a former Ohio Athletic Commissioner. And he spent months of full-time training
in forensic medicine in researching Game Face! He has been interviewed as an
expert on over thirty top radio stations, and quoted in Fitness, Strong, and
Muscle magazines, and is an panel expert for LowCarb
Energy Magazine. All of this may give readers a clue to how he was able to
write such a true-to-life murder mystery--well before the real-life BALCO
doping controversy hit the news! An
edge-of-your-seat mix of medical suspense, forensic investigation, and high
stakes sports competition!
Yesalis, Charles, and
Since 1980, much of Dr. Yesalis’
research has been devoted to the nonmedical use of
anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. In 1988 he directed
the first national study of steroid use among adolescents and was the first to
present evidence of psychological dependence on the drug In a 1993 nationwide
survey, Yesalis and his colleagues were the first to
present an estimate of steroid use in the U.S. population and demonstrate an association between anabolic steroid use and
violent behavior and the use of other illicit drugs and alcohol.
On three occasions Yesalis
has been asked to testify before the U.S. Congress on legislation related to
the control of anabolic steroids and growth hormone abuse. He also has been a
consultant to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the American Medical
Association, the NFL Players Association, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the
National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the National Strength and
Conditioning Association.
Virginia Cowart is a Chicago-based medical writer who has been writing about anabolic steroids for more than a decade. Her series on drugs and sport written for the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) was one of the first detailed reports on the scientific response to increased drug use among athletes. In preparation for the series, she interviewed nearly all the leading figures in drug research, testing, and prevention efforts.
Cherryh, C.J. Forge of Heaven. This
science fiction tale deals with survival on a desert world devastated by
nanotechnology.
Leader Marak is focused on rebuilding his planet's biosphere, which was nearly
destroyed in bombings hundreds of years earlier, wiping out virtually all life
not preserved in deep shelters.
Cherryh, C.J. Hammerfall. Two women with superhuman powers wage
psychic and genetic war for control of a civilization.
The common people are unaware that their seemingly immortal ruler, the Ila, has
used nanotechnology to control their lives and modify their bodies for survival
on their harsh planet.
Goonan, Kathleen Ann. Crescent City Rhapsody. When a powerful electromagnetic pulse originating in space triggers a communications blackout that threatens the future of the world, scientists turn to nanotech and genetic engineering to find an alternate means of communicating, but their solution also has the power to destroy the human race.
Goonan, Kathleen Ann. Mississippi Blues. Goonan follows up her
acclaimed first novel Queen City Jazz, which showed how nanotechnology changed
the world, with this excellent sequel. Verity travels down the river from
Cincinnati to Norleans experiencing postnanotechnological America. Full of
vibrant descriptions and musical analogies, this novel offers an optimistic view
of the future, albeit a strange one. (from a Library Journal review).
Brain repair, smart pills,
mind-reading machines--modern neuroscience promises to soon deliver a
remarkable array of wonders as well as profound insight into the nature of the
brain. But these exciting new breakthroughs, warns Steven Rose, will also raise
troubling questions about what it means to be human. In The Future of the
Brain, Rose explores just how far neuroscience may help us understand the human
brain--including consciousness--and to what extent cutting edge technologies
should have the power to mend or manipulate the mind. Rose first offers a
panoramic look at what we now know about the brain, from its three-billion-year
evolution, to its astonishingly rapid development in the embryo, to the miraculous
process of infant development (how a brain becomes a human). More important, he
shows what all this science can--and cannot--tell us about the human condition.
He examines questions that still baffle scientists: if our genes are 99%
identical to those of chimpanzees, if our brains are composed of identical
molecules, arranged in pretty similar cellular patterns, how come we are so
different? And he explores the potential threats and promises of new
technologies and their ethical, legal, and social implications, wondering how
far we should go in eliminating unwanted behavior or enhancing desired
characteristics, focusing on the new "brain steroids" and on the use
of Ritalin to control young children. The Future of the Brain is a remarkable
look at what the brain sciences are telling us about who we are and where we
came from--and where we may be headed in the years ahead.
MEDICAL and RESEARCH ETHICS
Kline, Wendy. Building a Better Race
Offers a cultural history of eugenics in America, focusing on the movement's central, continuing interaction with notions of gender and morality.
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper
Anna was genetically engineered to be a perfect match for her cancer-ridden older sister. Since birth, the 13-year-old has donated platelets, blood, her umbilical cord, and bone marrow as part of her family's struggle to lengthen Kate's life. Anna is now being considered as a kidney donor in a last-ditch attempt to save her 16-year-old sister. As this compelling story opens, Anna has hired a lawyer to represent her in a medical emancipation suit to allow her to have control over her own body. Picoult skillfully relates the ensuing drama from the points of view of the parents; Anna; Cambell, the self-absorbed lawyer; Julia, the court-appointed guardian ad litem; and Jesse, the troubled oldest child in the family. Everyone's quandary is explicated and each of the characters is fully developed. There seems to be no easy answer, and readers are likely to be sympathetic to all sides of the case. This is a real page-turner and frighteningly thought-provoking. The story shows evidence of thorough research and the unexpected twist at the end will surprise almost everyone. The novel does not answer many questions, but it sure raises some and will have teens thinking about possible answers long after they have finished the book.
Palmer, Michael. Extreme
Measures
Secrecy, intrigue and doctors blurring edges of medical ethics are the ingredients in best-selling author Michael Palmer’s prescription for riveting medical thriller. In Extreme Measures, he combines his scenes from his decades of emergency room experience with haunting images of experiments using human guinea pigs to create a terrifying world of life and death.
Dr. Eric Najarian is young,
talented and unafraid to use unorthodox emergency room procedures, even in the
most dire cases. He is certainly pegged for advancement at
Palmer, Michael. Cr