Faculty Bibliography

J. Craig Venter announced in May that he and his colleagues had made a new living bacterium from a genome they decoded, artificially rebuilt and then stuck into the cored-out remains of the bacterium Mycoplasma. When the hybrid bug began to reproduce, it became the first artificial organism, putting to rest the ancient and tenacious conceit that only a deity or some special power can create the spark of life. It was the most dramatic demonstration yet of the power of synthetic biology, a nascent field that promises to solve many of the most pressing problems. Here, Caplan discusses the probable effects of biotechnology

When one thinks of hunger strikes, two images likely come to mind. In 1980, seven Northern Irish Republican prisoners launched a hunger strike in Belfast's Maze prison. They were protesting the revocation of their prisoner-of-war status by the British government. This initial hunger strike led to a series of others, during which Bobbie Sands became the first of ten prisoners to die from starvation. More recently, many prisoners held at the US facility at Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba have conducted hunger strikes. The first began in 2005 and involved as many as 130 men. They continue to the present day, with one or two prisoners involved in hunger strikes at any given time. Here, Caplan examines whether state officials should make a move to force-feed prisoners on hunger strikes

Caplan talks about the need for reexamination of a regulatory system that is not keeping its people safe. Hardly a month goes by without a medication or medical device being identified as having dangerous side-effects, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) holding hearings, lawyers taking out ads looking for victims, class-action suits getting filed, or patients being left to talk with their equally confused doctors about whether they should stop treatment given the newly identified deaths, risks, recalls, or warnings. These things happened because the regulatory system is too skewed toward looking at the earliest stages of research

Caplan points out that the Internet isn't the only place people can find free-flying hype about genetic testing. They can also find it at their corner drugstore. The reality is that whether they are talking about Internet dietary advice or corner drugstore home testing kits, genetic testing isn't ready for primetime. Not only is genetic testing not ready for sale at the local drugstore, it isn't yet ready for distribution at doctor's office. Genes may be the blueprints of life, but currently it takes a genetic engineer to read and interpret them

Obviously, health-care workers have the duty, proclaimed in their own professional associations' ethical codes, to put patient interest and safety first and get vaccinated. There is also, clearly, an unarguable foundation for insisting that all health-care workers who have regular patient contact get vaccinated as a job requirement. However, when hospitals and health departments have proposed vaccination mandates for health-care workers, they have almost invariably been met with lawsuits demanding the right to choose. Here, Caplan discusses why legal actions against mandates should be stopped

If your house is full of radioactive radon gas leaking up from underlying rocks, your risk for lung cancer is high no matter what genes you do or don't have

Type "genetic testing" on an Internet search engine and then hang on. You will be in for quite a ride. There is an endless parade of companies touting genetic tests for everything, including determining whether your kid has the potential to be a star athlete, finding out whether your ancestors were kings or ne'er-do-wells, finding a date, optimizing your diet, or knowing what diet to use if your intake is not optimal