Furthermore , if babies help make us human, wouldn’t that mean that fewer babies might make us more selfish and less sociable—in the words of Dr. Hrdy, less human? But I keep getting ahead of myself. . . . . Continue Reading »
Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. They just help make us people and not other primates, reports the New York Times : In the view of the primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, the extraordinary social skills of an infant are at the heart of what makes us human. Through its ability to solicit . . . . Continue Reading »
A last-minute addition to my travels near Boston: I mentioned last week that I’ll be giving a poetry reading on Saturday, March 14, at 3:00 p.m. at Jabberwocky Bookshop , 50 Water Street, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Some Readers of First Things in Wellesley saw the announcement and asked if I . . . . Continue Reading »
In an article about the LA Fertility Institute’s recent offer to help parents choose the genetic traits of their children, including eye and hair color and gender, the company’s founder, Dr. Jeff Steinberg, said “I would not say this is a dangerous road. It’s an uncharted . . . . Continue Reading »
Most of us instinctively agree that the human brain and the computer are qualitatively different—that the difference between human and computer intelligence is one, not of degree, but of kind. If you were wondering, however, why this is true, Ari N. Schulman at the New Atlantis has a wonderful . . . . Continue Reading »
Remember when we were told that IVF, coupled with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), would only be used to prevent serious genetic health maladies from being passed to the next generation? That was never true, of course. The intent was to get people to accept the principle that parents should . . . . Continue Reading »
President Obama still hasn’t rescinded the Bush stem cell policy. He will, but it may matter a lot less than people once thought. The IPSC advances continue, opening the door possibly for a way forward in biotechnology that all Americans can support. And, it is reported in the Washington Post! . . . . Continue Reading »
The announcement in November of 2006 that researchers in the United States and Japan had succeeded in turning skin cells into what appeared to be the equivalent of embryonic stem cells transformed the landscape of stem cell science, and the related ethical debate. If Democrats in Washington ever . . . . Continue Reading »
This is how bad things have become: “They associated us with the cookies and the camping, and those were both scary concepts,” said Amelia de Dios Romero, the Girl Scouts’ multicultural marketing manager. “Selling cookies, to them, meant going door-to-door to strangers, and . . . . Continue Reading »
I knew the assisted suicide crowd would try to make the four defendants in the assisted suicide of a man who had been treated successfully of cancer, but was undergoing difficult reconstruction surgery and needed a hip replacement, into some kind of civil rights-type heroes. Toward this end, some . . . . Continue Reading »
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