Playing With Fire: The Ethics of Germ Line Genetic Therapy

Genetic Mosaics and the Germ Line Lineage

Genetic mosaics provide information about cellular lineages that is otherwise difficult to obtain, especially in humans. De novo mutations act as cell markers, allowing the tracing of developmental trajectories of all descendants of the cell in which the new mutation arises. De novo mutations may arise at any time during development but are relatively rare. They have usually been observed throu...

Playing With Ethics: Video Game Controversy

Introduction to Gaming Ethics Video games are widely played for entertainment and amusement; in addition, they can act as an aid in relieving stress. Due to advancing technology, video games have evolved and grown into a large empire impacting those within this realm. Thus many ethical issues are brought to our attention due to this development. As a result, we should recognize how new video ga...

Germ-Line Genetic Engineering and the Precautionary Principle

The Science and Ethics of Engineering the Human Germ Line: Mendel's Maze

specifically applied to the unique challenges of studying plants. The book claims to assume no specialized knowledge of plant biology and indeed goes in some detail into necessary background information and terms. And herein lies the problem with this book. By being limited to so few pages, the book at times seems to pick and choose what to focus on, covering in excellent detail and clarity som...

Playing with Fire: Cigarettes, Taxes and Competition from the Internet

This paper documents the rise of the Internet as a source of cigarette tax competition for states in the United States. Using data on cigarette tax rates, taxable cigarette sales and individual smoking rates by state from 1980 to 2005 merged with data on Internet penetration, the paper documents that there has been a substantial increase in the sensitivity of taxable cigarette sales that is cor...