Reason as Our Guide 英文参考文献.docVIP

Essay Reason as Our Guide Elizabeth Blackburn and Janet Rowley W e are two of the scientist members of the President’s Council on Bioethics. In late Two recently issued reports of the Council, “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness” (http:??/ reports/beyondtherapy/index.html) and “Monitoring Stem Cell Research” (http:??/reports/ stemcell/index.html), are therefore of deep concern to us. We discuss them in turn below. scienti?c or reliable evidence, the report presents the opinion that research into prolonging healthy life may result in a lifetime obsession with immortality. Hence, this chapter in the report falls short of explaining the serious challenge of preventing and curing age-related disease to extend health—very different from attempting immortality. 2001, we were invited by the President of the United States to serve on this Council. The Bioethics Council was appointed by the President to “monitor stem-cell research, to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and to consider all of the medical and ethical rami?cations of biomedical innovation This council will keep us apprised of new developments and give our nation a forum to continue to discuss and evaluate these important issues.” The same chapter offers a Concerns about the“Beyond Therapy” Report sensational quote from a researcher that “the real goal [of aging research] is to keep people alive forever.” The request that quotes from researchers more representative of the biomedical research community also be included was declined. This leads to a misleading misrepresentation of the motivation of reputable researchers in the ?eld of aging. In suggesting that slowing biological aging may increase the disjunction between “social aging” (the age at which children are exposed to “adult” images and concepts) and “biological aging” (expected lifespan), only one view, a conservative one, of the supposed “best” way to raise children is presented. The report also suggests, with no