ABSTRACT
Education must go beyond only countering essentialist and deterministic views of genetics.
Subject(s)
Human Genetics , Politics , Social Environment , Humans , Human Genetics/educationABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Color blindness is a common hereditary X-linked disorder. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether color blindness affects the ability to detect the presence of blood in body fluids. METHODS: Ten color-blind subjects and 20 sex- and age-matched control subjects were shown 94 photographs of stool, urine, or sputum. Frank blood was present in 57 (61%) of the photographs. Surveys were done to determine if board-certified internists had ever considered whether color blindness would affect detection of blood and whether an inquiry on color blindness was included in their standard medical interview. RESULTS: Color-blind subjects were significantly less able to identify correctly whether pictures of body fluids showed blood compared with non-color-blind controls (P =.001); the lowest rate of correct identifications occurred with pictures of stool (median of 26 [70%] of 37 for color-blind subjects vs 36.5 [99%] of 37 for controls; P<.001). The more severely color-blind subjects were significantly less accurate than those with less severe color deficiency (P =.009). Only 2 (10%) of the 21 physicians had ever considered the possibility that color blindness might affect the ability of patients to detect blood, and none routinely asked their patients about color blindness. CONCLUSIONS: Color blindness impairs recognition of blood in body fluids. Color-blind individuals and their health care providers need to be made aware of this limitation.
Subject(s)
Body Fluids , Color Vision Defects , Occult Blood , Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
Xenotransplantation--moving organs or cells from one species to another--is currently being actively researched as a possible contribution to the problem of a global shortage of human organs for transplants. Should xenotransplantation be encouraged, permitted, frowned upon or forbidden? I attempt to outline the main areas of debate that would need to be addressed before this question could confidently be answered. At present, though, we are some way from answering it. This is partly because of the lack of agreement among bioethicists about almost anything and partly because xenotransplantation raises a particularly wide range of ethical issues.
Subject(s)
Ethical Analysis , Transplantation, Heterologous , Animal Rights , Animal Welfare , Animals , Animals, Genetically Modified , Disease Transmission, Infectious , Humans , Nature , Primates , Religion , Risk Assessment , Stress, Psychological , SwineABSTRACT
Should research on the possible genetic components of human intelligence be carried out? I first try to provide some general guidelines as to whether any particular piece of research should be undertaken and then consider the specific example of the ethics of genetic research on intelligence. The history of the debate on intelligence does not make one very optimistic that the fruits of such research would be used wisely. However, there are indications that people's understanding of the nature of inheritance may be improving and it could be that such research might have significant benefits. It is worth remembering that the condition phenylketonuria, a genetic disease in any useful sense of the term, and one that leads to mental retardation (i.e. very low intelligence), is now wholly preventable, and indeed very largely prevented, through environmental intervention.
Subject(s)
Ethical Analysis , Genetic Research , Genetics, Behavioral , Intelligence , Ethics , Government Regulation , Homosexuality , Humans , Intelligence/genetics , Public Policy , Risk AssessmentSubject(s)
Genetic Engineering , Genetic Therapy , Germ Cells , Cystic Fibrosis/genetics , Cystic Fibrosis/therapy , Ethics , Genetic Enhancement , Humans , Phenylketonurias/genetics , Phenylketonurias/therapy , Risk Assessment , Severe Combined Immunodeficiency/genetics , Severe Combined Immunodeficiency/therapy , TheologyABSTRACT
There are many theories which predict how animals should control the sex ratio of their offspring. In diploids, however, such control is rarely seen. Two explanations have been suggested for this. One is that parents are simply unable to control the sex ratio of their offspring. The other is that sperm actively oppose such control. This paper examines the possibilities and consequences of parent-gamete conflict over the sex ratio. Such conflict may occur between any of the parties concerned--sperm, ova, fathers, mothers, offspring. It is concluded that gametes are indeed almost always opposed to any parental manipulation of the sex ratio. However, it is probable that the rarity of adaptive parental control of progeny sex ratio in diploids is because parents are physiologically incapable of altering the sex ratio.
Subject(s)
Biological Evolution , Sex Ratio , Animals , Diploidy , Drosophila/genetics , Female , Genotype , Inbreeding , Male , Models, Genetic , Selection, Genetic , X Chromosome , Y ChromosomeABSTRACT
Belovsky's (1978) model for optimal size in moose is applied to red deer. Criticisms are levelled at Belovsky's model. In particular, the equation he derives relating net energy intake to body weight is shown to be fundamentally invalid. Modifications are suggested using existing published information and an analysis of previously unpublished data on red deer stomach size as a function of body weight. I conclude that quantitative predictions of optimal body size are likely to be very difficult as slight changes in the relevant parameters lead to huge changes in predicted optimal weights.
