Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge
Editor
BioEdge
Hi there,
My Latin is not what it once was and it was never much. All I can remember is classic phrases like Caesar ad sum jam forti, Brutus et erat; Semper ubi, sub ubi; and Illegitimi non carborundum. So lately I have been making amends for schoolboy sloth by reading a few of the classics. I have just finished (and highly recommend) The Annals of Imperial Rome, by Tacitus, which chronicles the years of Domitian, Claudius, Caligula and Nero. Tacitus would have made a good op-ed writer on the New York Times, with his sardonic analysis of palace politics.
Whoa! Excuse me: just where is all this going? Will we get bioethics or just bloviation?
Well, sort of. Let me press on.
It was a bit dismaying to read how determined the Emperors were to pass on their power and prerogatives to their children -- but how little they did to produce them. Augustus had no sons and adopted Tiberius, his step-son by his third wife. Tiberius was succeeded by an adopted grand-nephew, Caligula, and the odious Caligula by his uncle, Claudius. Claudius’ only son died in his teens and so he was succeeded by the perverse and capricious Nero, the adopted son of his fourth wife. As the Romans would have said, contortum est, it’s complicated.
Is it drawing too long a bow if I see a parallel in the couplings of our own era?
Below we report on services provided by EggBanxx, a new company in Manhattan which freezes eggs for socially infertile single women. Reading between the lines, you can feel the pain of its over-achieving clients, who are mostly in their early or mid-30s and desperate to bring at least one child into the world before their biological clock stops ticking. Behind them may be two or three relationships; ahead is loneliness. The statistics say that most of them will fail.
Like the emperors of Rome, the yuppies of Manhattan have nearly all the autonomy they like. Autonomy is the cement of most contemporary bioethical frameworks. But just as it brought little joy to the emperors, it fails us as well. There must be something more to ethics.
2014 marks 2,000 years since the death of Augustus. You would think that two millennia of technological, educational and social progress would have raised the level of our romantic relationships as well as our standard of living. It seems not.
by Michael Cook | Sep 06, 2014
About 30 children conceived from this technique have been born, 17 of them from an American IVF clinic between 1996 and 2002.
by Michael Cook | Sep 06, 2014
In a terse summary of objections to the practice of mitochondrial transfer to prevent serious diseases Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP, told the House…
by Michael Cook | Sep 05, 2014
This month's issue of LGBT Health contains a fascinating interview with two Boston fertility specialists who cater for gays and lesbians who want to become…
by Michael Cook | Sep 05, 2014
Commercialisation of IVF is crossing new frontiers in New York with "egg freezing parties" for career women who want to keep their options open.
by Michael Cook | Sep 05, 2014
It is striking piece of modern architecture: a 30-metre-long wall of blue glass in the open air near the Berlin Philharmonic.
by Xavier Symons | Sep 05, 2014
There are calls for a change in birth certificate regulations after a woman conceived by sperm donation had her adopted father erased as parent.
by Xavier Symons | Sep 05, 2014
Scientists from MIT say they have managed to manipulate 'good' and 'bad' memories in mice, in a study that may have significant impact on research…
by Xavier Symons | Sep 05, 2014
Young British brain tumour survivor Ashya King has been reunited with his parents after they were released from a Madrid jail.
by Xavier Symons | Sep 05, 2014
A Chilean priest is being investigated for coercing single women into give up their babies for adoption.BioEdge Suite 12A, Level 2 | 5 George St | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | Australia Phone: +61 2 8005 8605 Mobile: 0422-691-615 Email: michael@bioedge.org |
.png)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario