Playing God in Academe

"Playing God" and bioethics.

Playing God? Owning God?--Patenting and the human genome.

It is just over 50 years since James Watson and Francis Crick published the news of their discovery of the structure of DNA1 – the molecule that encodes the genetic information present in all living organisms. Their letter, published on 25 April 1953, signified the beginning of the modern age of biology.2 In 2001, as a result of the activities of public and private sector bodies working on the ...

Playing God: Mary must die so Jodie may live longer.

In 2000, conjoined twins were born in England. What made this case unique was the fact that if the twins remained unseparated, medical opinion held they would die; if they were separated one twin would live, and one twin would die; the parents refused to consent to separation; and the hospital charged with their care brought the matter to court. The trial court and court of appeal approved of t...

Stay in Academe

of Pro Elsevie The retention of nursing faculty is a growing concern in the United States and a major challenge for nursing education administrators. Aim: This descriptive study used Herzberg's Motivation– Hygiene Theory of Job Satisfaction to explore the factors that predict nursing faculty's job satisfaction and intent to stay in academe. Method: Institutional review board approval was obtain...

Playing God in Frankenstein’s Footsteps: Synthetic Biology and the Meaning of Life

The emergent new science of synthetic biology is challenging entrenched distinctions between, amongst others, life and non-life, the natural and the artificial, the evolved and the designed, and even the material and the informational. Whenever such culturally sanctioned boundaries are breached, researchers are inevitably accused of playing God or treading in Frankenstein's footsteps. Bioethici...