Questions FEB 3

Research (Basics 5); Premonition 5

Today in Bioethics we'll talk "research." Things like clinical trials and research involving animals and their rights, and genetics, and epidemiology. We'll look at the funding gap between what we need to cure and where our research dollars are actually going, and at the moral imperative of genuine and informed consent. We'll look at disturbing instances of fraudulent and dishonest research. And we'll consider Peter Singer's claims about "speciesism."

The future of research is a daunting source of apprehension and speculation. Michael Sandel and Bill McKibben have aired serious concerns about genetic and other "enhancement" research as potentially catastrophic for our capacity to achieve or even recognize "meaningful" lives. Enhanced may not mean improved.

1. Name one of the basic requirements agreed upon by all codes devised to protect individuals from malicious research.

2. What decree states that consent must be gained in all experimentation with human beings?

3. Name one of four areas of research discussed in the book.

4. Which famous contemporary ethicist is a sharp critic of speciesism?

5. Name one of four R's used in international legislation pertaining to animal rights in research?

6. Dilemmas in epidemiological research illiustrate what general point?

7. What did Hwang Woo-suk do?

8. What is the term for altering the numbers in a calculation to make the hypothesis more convincing, with no justification form the research findings for such members?

9. What categories of human enhancement does Campbell enumerate, and what does he identify as its "extreme end"?

10. What is the "10/90 Gap"?

Premonition

1. Watching "smart" people leave the White House, what did Carter learn about governmental inefficiency?

2. What happened when President Obama visited Mexico, prompting his meeting with Carter?

3. Why did Richard keep a detailed journal in the White House?

4. What was this book's eponymous "premonition"?

5. What Presidential decision "worked out" but was nonetheless wrong, in Richard's view?

6. What strange childhood experience altered Carter's thinking about pandemic preparednes?

7. Despite her academic adviser's suggestion that she drop science, Charity Dean fell in love with microbiology and learned what?

8. The U.S really doesn't have what, according to Charity?

DQ:

• Can there really ever be "fully informed" voluntary consent, given the many unknown variables and unpredicted consequences involved in most research?
• Discuss: "Trials of pharmaceuticals may be driven as much by commercial considerations as by the likelihood of real therapeutic gain." 122
• What concerns do you have about the use of animals in medical research? Is speciesism one of them? 10 medical breakthroughs due to animal testing... PETA... Touring an animal research facility
• What limits, if any, would you like to see imposed on genetic research and the uses to which it may be put?
• Were ethical improprieties committed in the case of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells (HELA cells) were harvested without her consent? (Rebecca Skloot... BBC...CBS...)
• If "dreams of perfect health by the better-off will determine the research agenda" in the future, resulting in soaring health care costs and greater health "enhancement" opportunities for the wealthy, what should be done to insure adequate attention to "the health problems of most of the world's population"? 129
• Should we be worried about a "Prozac revolution" and a "brave new world" of somatically-induced apathetic bliss? 130
• Would you give special priority to any of Campbell's five enhancement categories (130)? Is "Transcendence"-style enhancement beyond the realm of reasonable concern (given the considerable monied interest of people like Larry Page)? 
• Comment: "Why would we want such a 'posthuman' future? Are our lives better if we become physically stronger or more agile, or have an increased intelligence, or live for centuries?" 131
• Is the outsourcing of clinical drug trials to developing countries ethically defensible? 132
• How would you propose making research priorities "aligned to the needs of the majority"? 133
• Is it likely that biobanks and other communitarian initiatives will in the future "prioritize health research according to need rather than profit," particularly in the U.S.? Would you support such a reprioritizing? How?
• Have you seen Sicko? Care to share a review? Or of Michael Moore's latest doc'y?