Having Been An Oncologist And Having Cared

Over His Illustrious Career, John Harris Has Explored The Most Challenging Bioethical Questions With Insight, Engaging Wit, And Eloquence. In Enhancing Evolution, Harris Does It Again. He Argues That It Is Not Just An Option But An Obligation For People To Use Available Biomedical Technologies To Enhance Their Own--and Their Children's--physical And Mental Abilities. Harris Rightly Deserves His Reputation For Fearlessly Following His Ethical Arguments Wherever They Lead.

Reasoning Based On Cost Has Been Strenuously Resisted; It Violated The Hippocratic Oath, Was Associated With Rationing, And Derided As Putting A Price On Life... Indeed, Many Physicians Were Willing To Lie To Get Patients What They Needed From Insurance Companies That Were Trying To Hold Down Costs.

Having Been An Oncologist And Having Cared For Scores, If Not Hundreds, Of Dying Patients, When You Don't Have A Treatment That Can Shrink The Tumor And The Patient Will Die, It's A Very Difficult Conversation. It's Emotionally Draining.

Childhood Vaccines Are One Of The Great Triumphs Of Modern Medicine. Indeed, Parents Whose Children Are Vaccinated No Longer Have To Worry About Their Child's Death Or Disability From Whooping Cough, Polio, Diphtheria, Hepatitis, Or A Host Of Other Infections.

Americans Tend To Endorse The Use Of Physician-assisted Suicide And Euthanasia When The Question Is Abstract And Hypothetical.