HUMAN CLONING AND THE CHALLENGE OF REGULATION

VOCABULARY

mammary (adj.) 乳房的 ewe (n.) 母羊 feasible (adj.) 可行的 rear (v.) 養育 ; 飼養 bizarre (adj.) 奇異的 scenario (n.) 情節 ; 情景 entrepreneur (n.) 企業家 enucleate (v.) 摘除細胞核

VOCABULARY

plausible (adj.) 似真實有理的 infertile (adj.) 不孕的 gestate (v.) 懷孕 prenatal (adj.) 產前的 in line with= in accordance with kinship (n.) 親屬 conceive (v.) 懷孕 coitally (adv.) 性交地 coitus (n.)

ACTIVITY

ethical fertile feasible legal social responsible

unethicalinfertileinfeasibleillegalantisocialirresponsible

MAIN IDEA

There are many pros and cons of cloning and how to ensure that the technology is used to enhance, rather than limit, individual freedom and welfare.

Human cloning is a plausible way to solve many medical problems we haven’t dealt with and we shouldn’t completely ban it.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION 1

Theoretically, cloning would enable rich or powerful persons to clone themselves several times over.

Current reproductive techniques can also be abused, and existing laws against selling children would apply to those by created by cloning.What is the bizarre or horrific scenarios in the first sentence of third paragraph?

SUPPORTING INFORMATION 2

Cloning humans won’t cause many people to turn to cloning when other methods of reproduction would enable them to have healthy children.

Infertile couples don’t have to rely on sperm, egg or embryo from anonymous donors; instead, they might choose to clone one of the partners.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION 3

A couple at high risk of having offspring with a genetic disease is faced with selecting a way to have a child.

If cloning were available, some couples in line with prevailing concepts of kinship might clone one of themselves or another family members.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION 4

Through gene therapy, the child wouldn’t have been born healthy but been made healthy after birth.

If the child’s disease was not genetic, a couple might prefer to clone the affected child to be sure that the tissue would match.

Is it unethical that we clone another child to cure affected one?

DISCUSSION

Do you agree with human cloning? Why or not?

Nowadays, selling own or others’ organs is illegal. Cloning must be incredibly expensive. So if we clone organs as medical therapy to cure a terminally-ill patient, do we constitute a crime?

Give some examples of the challenge of regulation or ethics that human cloning brings.

SCIENTISTS CREATE SYNTHETIC ORGANISM

By Robert Lee HotzThe Wall Street Journal

May 21.2010

VOCABULARY

herald (v.) 預告 piecemeal (n.) 片、塊 menagerie (n.) 野生動物、動物園 craft (v.) 精巧製作 anew (adv.) 再一次 nagging (adj.) 嘮叨的 play down 貶低 strain (n.) 種、品系 algae (n.) 水藻、海藻

VOCABULARY

patent (n.) 專利 moratorium (n.) 暫停、中止 mandate (n.) 授權、命令 theologian (n.) 神學家 multidenominational (adj.) 多教派的 seminary (n.) 神學院 withstand (n.) 禁得起 scrutiny (n.) 監督 consortium (n.) 國際財團

VOCABULARY

meld (v.) 合併 culmination (n.) 巔峰、頂點 instruction (n.) 指示 assert (v.) 堅稱、聲稱 interim (adj.) 暫時

MAIN IDEA

Scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions.

Synthetic biology seems to have wonderful potential future and profits, but it also brings some opposing arguments.

JCVI-syn1.0

SUPPORTING INFORMATION 1

The development, may stir anew nagging questions of ethics, law and public safety about artificial life.

Leery of previous moral and ethical debates about whether it is right to manipulate life forms.

Environmental groups called for fully regulating all synthetic biology experiments and products and a global moratorium on synthetic biology.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION 2

Several companies are already seeking to take advantage of the new field, called synthetic biology to breed industrial life forms that can secrete fuels, vaccines or other commercial products like algae that can capture carbon dioxide and make fuel.

DISCUSSION

If we can make new strains of bacteria, plants or animals what problems or benefits we may face?

Many debates of new technology haven’t come to a consensus. In this situation, do you think that we should temporarily halt it or continue to develop it?

Thanks for your listening !