Terri Schiavo Case

In my GT class we learned about the Terri Schiavo Case.In 1990 a woman named Terri Schiavo fell into a coma. On February 25, 1990 she collapsed in her home in St. Petersburg, Florida in full cardiac arrest. She suffered massive brain damage due to lack of oxygen and fell into a coma which was soon announced that it was an irreversible coma. There was an immense amount of debate on if they should keep her alive or not. Her parents wanted to keep her alive, but her husband Michael Schiavo said that it would be better for her to die then to live like this in an irreversible coma. Many people had gotten involved with the case including Jeb Bush who was the governor of Florida at the time. This case was spread throughout the country and there was an abundance of controversy on the decision to keep her alive or not. She ended up dieng on March 31, 2005 at 9:03 AM Eastern time after being in coma for 15 years! Her feeding tube was removed on March 18 which is what caused her to die.

I personally think that the decision to dis-connect Terri from life support was justified. She was in an irreversible coma, so she had little to no chance of ever recovering. I don't think that anybody would want to live in a coma where all you can do is think and breath. If I was Terri I would want to die because I wouldn't want to live in a coma because then my family has to spend so much money on me and I don't want them to waste money on me when there is no chance for me to recover and they have to spend so much money on me and then can't use it for themselves. They can't use that money for my sister's education and for things they like. I also would hate to just lie there in bed for many many years doing absolutely nothing. As mentioned in NNBD it states how Schiavo's doctors and her court-appointed doctors expressed the opinion that there existed no hope of rehabilitation. This shows that there was no reason to keep her alive in a life where nothing can be achieved. Your life will not be good at all. David Gibbs said in an article on CNN he says she has the mental capacity of a 6-month-old. George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, has said she lacks all mental capacity and spinal fluid occupies the space where her cerebral cortex was. I don't think you would like to live in a condition like this, this is why I strongly believe the right decision was to end her life.

Least to most controversial the 9 natal bioethical issues

1. Natural Reproduction
2. Fertility drugs: Prescription drugs which increase a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant
3. Carrier testing: Genetic tests of parents that show the risk of passing on a genetic disorder
4. Prenatal testing: genetic screening of fetus for genes that cause disorders
5. Artificial  Insemination: Insertion of sperm into female reproductive tract by syringe in a doctor’s office
6. Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Diseases: Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish. Embryos are screened for a certain genetic disorder.  Those without the defective gene are inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in a doctor’s office.
7. In Vitro Fertilization: Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish.  Viable embryos are chosen and inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in a doctor’s office.
8. Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Non-deleterious Traits: Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish. Embryos are screened for genes of non-deleterious traits (such as hair color, height, sex).  Those with desired genes are inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in a doctor’s office. 

9. Cloning: The creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another.

This is the order from 1-9 that I place the 9 natal bio ethical issues. I chose this order because to me it makes the most sense. Of course natural reproduction is first because it is natural and common and that is how most people reproduce today. I put fertility drugs as #2 because I don't think people would have a problem with a women taking drugs to help her become pregnant. For my third choice I picked carrier testing because to me there isn't anything wrong about genetic testing to see if there will be any genetic disorders passed on to their child. I put prenatal testing as four because this also tests for genes that causes disorders. I think people would still argue for my #3 and #4 choices because they may think it isn't right to test, but I don't see any problems with it. For #5 I chose Artificial Insemination because it could be helpful if a parent or both parents aren't able to reproduce normally so they can get a child, but there could also be some arguments to whether or not it is good to insert sperm into the female reproductive tract. For my 6th choice I chose Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Diseases because you are fertilizing sperm and egg in a petri dish and then inserted into the female reproductive tract. In can be helpful because the defective genes aren't inserted into the female reproductive tract, but it isn't naturally reproducing offspring, you are technically picking the genes. For #7 I chose In Vitro Fertilization because you are fertilizing in a petri dish and then choosing the viable embryos and inserting them into the female reproductive tract, this is controversial because you are picking the genes of your kid and personally I am against that. For my 8th choice I picked Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Non-deleterious Traits because fertilize the sperm and egg in a petri dish and then embryos are screened for genes and the desired genes are placed into the female reproductive tract. This is definitely controversial because a lot of people would be against people picking the genes of their children and I am against it because then the child isn't "natural". Cloning was my last choice because it is definitely the most controversial. You can't clone people because then they are exactly alike. This is very wrong and things could go wrong in cloning.

I would personally want to stop at Artificial Insemination. I would want to stop here because I can understand how some people aren't able to have babies and want to have children so they can get the sperm inserted into the female reproductive tract. Any further though in my opinion isn't good. It all has to do with picking your child's genes and if it will have any diseases or not and then leads to cloning! If we went that far then there would be many problems in the world and people who are genetically superior would end up having more rights than the people who are naturally born. This would cause chaos in the world and if people are cloned there would be two people who are exactly alike so they can act as one another which would cause problems. We should stop at Artificial Insemination because this would benefit our future.

My Reaction on Gattaca

We are in the unit Ethics right now in my GT class. Before we left for Christmas break we watched the movie Gattaca. It was very different than any other movie I have ever watched. The movie was about choosing your child's genes that would determine their characteristics in life. In the movie there was a person named Vincent Freeman who was born naturally without any superior genes. His father was going to name him Anton, which is after his own name, but then the nurse told him and his wife that their child has 99% chance of heart disease. That is why he decided to name him Vincent. Couple years later they had another kid. They chose his genes before he was born so that he wouldn't have any diseases or genetically transmitted issues. This made him superior to Vincent so their dad decided to name him Anton. Vincent and Anton would always play a game called chicken, in this game they would swim off the shore to see who can swim further. Of course Anton would always win because he was genetically superior to Vincent. Vincent always had a dream to go out into space, but he wasn't genetically superior. He kept trying to become an astronaut, but he couldn't and had to look for a job and became a janitor because he was an underclass human and was useful only for menial jobs. But one day a stranger meets Vincent and takes him to a man named Jerome Morrow. Jerome was genetically superior, also known as a valid who was an ex- sports champion, but is crippled. He no longer cared about his life because he had already tried to kill himself once and he wanted to give Vincent an oppurtunity. Then Vincent takes Jerome's physical appearance to resemble Jerome. Jerome gives Vincent his blood, urine, hair, and skin samples. Then Vincent goes to the Gattaca which is where Jerome worked. He uses Jerome's urine and blood samples so that he can be known as a "valid". A valid is someone who is genetically superior to people who are born normally because a valid's genes and characteristics were chosen before he/she was born. Vincent keeps Jerome's identity, but then a person gets murdered in Gattaca and Vincent is scared that he will get caught and even though he didn't commit the crime, since he isn't valid he will be held guilty. He never gets caught, but near the end of the movie his brother who is a police officer finds out that he is really Vincent and they play chicken again and this time Vincent wins and when Anton asks Vincent how he's doing it, Vincent says a great quote; "I didn't save any for the way back". This shows that he uses all his energy into swimming out, but doesn't save any for the way back. Then when Vincent is about to go to Saturn's moon called Titan the doctor at Gattaca finds out that he is not valid, but makes the computer say valid so that Vincent can fulfill his dream.

Im my opinion this movie was kind of boring. It was differnt, but wasn't interesting to me. I'm not too interested in cloning and reproduction of  babies by picking their genes and characteristics before hand. The story was a little dry as well, so overall the movie wasn't that good, but I did get an idea of what could happen in the future.