Direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals increases pressure on physicians to succumb to consumer demand. The strength to withstand this pressure comes in part from acceptance of the role of paternalism in the physician-patient relationship.
Genetic technology permits parents to select the children they will have, for a variety of controversial reasons. Two poignant cases from the United Kingdom raise the issue of how much moral and legal scrutiny those reasons should face, or can bear.
Policies addressing genetic technology typically insist on the need for enlightened public policy. Such policies must reflect some vision of what human beings are. Understanding the sacred helps identify elements in nature and human nature that ought to be preserved.
In September, 2000, British surgeons separated month-old conjoined twins against their parents' wishes. The operation prolonged indefinitely the life of one twin while causing the immediate death of the other. The author analyzes the competing views of the twins' embodiment that informed the debate over their separation, and argues that the resolution of their conflicting claims was a more difficult task than either side of the debate acknowledged.
The author considers several recent ethical attitudes toward cosmetic surgery in order to anticipate and offer recommendations concerning the ethical challenges society will encounter when genetic therapies used for cosmetic purposes become a real option in the future.
