Mad Scientists of Today and Tommorow

so yesterday in Biotechnology we are finishing the move Pandora's Box and it's all about Jim Watson and his views on genetic engineering and purification and whatnot of the future. Now if you've ever seen the man you'd immediatly notice that he is slightly creepy. I don't know if it's that he is old or that everytime he says something he finds profound he gives you this wide-eyed "hey I'm a genius and I just blew your mind" look. Either way, I find him both smart and creepy.

In my last post I quoted him, and here I shall quote him further:

"We're playing god, but that's an awefully good thing to do."

Am I the only one seeing an issue with that? Whether or not you beleive in God or gods, I think the fact that he is, in fact, aiming to be a godlike being is rediculous.

To just give some background, the whole movie was really about Eugenics, it is this idea of purifying the gene pool. Now that sounds wrong in many ways, but ideally it isn't supposed to be. The aims of eugenics are to eliminate disease, hereditary in nature. Things like sickle cell anemia and manic depression could essentially be weeded out of the world.

There have been, however, some extremely disgusting cases of botched eugenics in the past. The most widely known one being the experiments done by the Nazi party in Germany. Their goal, duh, was to create a pure Aryan race. They tried changing eye color and hair color in sick, twisted, and dangerous experiments.

Watson argues, though, that instead of just having children with cystic fibrosis or hemophelia, parents could choose to not let these genes be reproduced. (here is the biggie) His solution to what parents would see as a problem in a child would be to terminate pregnancies. He argues parents should have the option to test for genetic "issues" and opt to end the pregnancy before it comes to term so the children dont have to "suffer" with any disease during their lives.

He isnt saying they should, he is saying they should be able to. The producers of the movie did interview an author on the genetic nature of Manic Depression about what she thought about this new eugenics. The woman suffers from manic depression and has made a suicide attempt in her past. She can make the pedigree of her family and show who has had manic depression and who has made attempts at suicide. She tells about how when she was diagnosed her doctor told her not to have kids because it was hereditary. Apalling of him, I know. She then argues that people shouldnt use eugenics to rid the population of her disease. The thing is, people with Manic Depression have a higher tendency to be extremely creative. She counters Watson with the fact that by ridding society of people like her, you would be eliminating a large portion of the creativity of the world.

He counters with by letting people be born with this terrible disease, you would be letting them suffer.

I sat through this movie for two days and at every turn I changed my mind. At first I was totally turned off to Watson's ideals, but once you see past the crazy you can see some truth and some respect for human life, sorta. Then I'm totally disgusted again. This movie made me so sdlhighodiag hdgndlghidogh. oh yeah.

So that was the past part, now on to the future.

My plan is to be a doctor, so lots of science. The only severly interesting part of it all to me is genetics. This is so vital to me that I have a stand on it, and all I'm getting is more confused. I dont want to be some crazed Hitleresque genetecist who let's you design your baby. I also dont want to be responsible for the suffering of a helpless being. I mean, sure, I have ten years to figure it out, but still....haha.

good day ~ why do all my posts have Tally Hall references?

so today was a good day. yeah im confused too. haha. ok not really. it was just one of those days when you feel like you just brushed your teeth, but it lasts the whole day. you know that feeling you have right after you brushed those pearly whites and you know you could take on the world and win.

the wierd part is that the way it started off was kinda sucky, but i liked it. i got up at that ungodly hour and got out of bed late, and unrested. i call the kids and tell them to put their shoes on while im rummaging through everything trying to find my skirt. so i throw on my new grey tights and my awesome navy skirt, find my gray polo and throw on the berks. oh great the kids are watching some dumb show about dinosaurs and i have to be the bad guy and pull them away from it. then as they are finally listening, im getting my books together and saying goodmorning i get some goodmornings i wasnt expecting.

then we all get in the car a cool half an hour late, but miraculously, there is no traffic. OH MY GOD. amazing. so im hauling down the highway and i can tell my tire is flat, but there is no stopping now. i drop the kids at the babysitters and im on time to my parking spot. miracle again. so i get out of the car, get my bags, and surge out into the blizzardy bliss for two blocks. not entirely bad mainly because me and snow are the best of buds.

so i get onto my school grounds by crossing from the end of a cul-de-sac to the school drive. of course its been plowed and there is that little mound of snow on the edge of the roads. i cleverly use a drive way on the cul-de-sac to avoid the first, but oh no there is the second. just to put this in perspective, ive been walking for two blocks concentrating all my will on not slipping and not getting snow in my clogs. this small snow mountain is my worst enemy at the moment. so i see that i cant just step over the snow mountain, i must mount the beast. so i take the step and oh thank you jesus it holds. for a second. so down plunges my tight and clog clad foot into two and half feet of frigid hell. i quickly step out and as soon as i think im home free, i slip.

it is probably the single most graceful fall ive ever had. i didnt make some obnoxious noise, i didnt fall in a wierd position. it was the chain of miracles again. i laugh and i get up and proceed to the last gym class of the semester where all that awaits me is a badminton test. of course i breeze through it. duh its badminton. i get out of the class first because im first done and i get up to my locker and put my stuff away, finish my biotechnology homework and eat my muffin. good freaking morning.

i spent all of english talking to some frizzles while im supposed to be studying for half of my final tommorow. they said i need to write a book on my life. they would buy it, score for 3 copies sold! i had forgotten to do my government homework so i throw together one of the most awesome responsible citizenship poster ever, my teacher is even impressed. little does she know....then im off to world religions where i get to listen to my old spanish teacher's husband discuss Islam. quite enlightening. art was actually tolerable, my pot is almost done, im naming it the beast. it is quite beastly. math was good, my teacher let me leave to register to vote for the primaries. christian lifestyles half sucked, half interesting. biotechnology, well we watched a movie about Watson, half of Watson and Crick the pair that discovered the double helix, he is crazy. he said:

Some people say we are playing god. Well I have a straightforward answer. If we dont play god, who will?

i messed around in the hall for about 20 mins and even got a ride to my car. oh rapture. i dont know why it was such a good day, but it was.