Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to make and keep them healthy) than of the absence of health or the
workings of some pathological process or entity.
At this point, it is necessary to take a few cautious steps of my own
into the unforgiving unthinkable.
Beginning to Think about the Unthinkable
In traditional, restorative medicine, there is nothing that can be done for
Ben's condition. If he is injured or becomes ill, of course, as much can
be done for him as for anyone else—taking into account that his condi-
tion may itself require one or another regimen. While changes in social
attitudes and acceptance, along with support to pursue accepted goals
or careers, even if not done or not done well by those who meet or know
such dwarfs, can be recommended, they are plainly sufficiently rare as
to prompt some cynicism.
But is this sort of encouragement medicine's business? Should
physicians be involved with or even concerned about the mistreatment
Ben regularly receives? Doesn't this sort of thing fall to others, such as
social workers, ministers, rabbis, or therapists? In the end, why should
any of us be much concerned about dwarfs like Ben? What we were
born with is, after all, neither more nor less thanks to chance than is
Ben's condition. Indeed, unlike most of us, Ben is a famous scientist
appointed to a famous institute. What need does he have for anything
from medicine or the rest of us? If he is singled out for special con-
sideration, doesn't this simply defeat the very purpose of special
consideration?
Still, even considered merely as a body, we are obliged to recognize
that while currently nothing can be done for Ben and others like him,
in the new genetic, molecular model, such people may no longer be
so obviously off the medical agenda, and in any event their progeny
most surely will be squarely on the agenda of future, frankly
eugenic medical interventions—much of it done while progeny are still
embryonic.
What is novel about molecular biology and genetics is that very little,
perhaps nothing, will be regarded as automatically beyond the social or
medical pale. Everything, in short, formally beyond the limit is now up
for review, study, design, and possible if not yet probable reversal,
