Comments on: the perils of color-coded DNA

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:17:12 +0000

Saying that there is a biological basis for different outcomes gives the excuse that funding and help doesn’t need to be extended to certain people because there outcomes are “natural” so why waste money on them. This argument has been around for decades and is frequently used by Conservatives to justify cutting social and health services. Scientific racism is alive and well.

By: embrownny

embrownny — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:06:11 +0000

I know there are certain illnesses (linked to DNA) that affect particular groups of people, such as Tay-Sachs and Sick Cell. But to say that a person has a less chance of survival because of DNA seems a bit extreme. If we are to listen to people like Saletan, we might as well just give in to the inevitable. Why spend money on treatment? As mentioned, it’s easier (and less costly) to blame it on genetics than to change environment and behavior. The fact that Saletan is still pushing the notion that white people have larger brains and are therefore more intelligent says a lot about him. I remember hearing that in the 60s, but thank goodness I had teachers that told me not to believe that crap.

By: dphealthcareconsulting

dphealthcareconsulting — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:07:03 +0000

Open invitation to you and your readers to participate in the Being Cancer Book Club. This month we are discussing “The Light Within: the Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer”. “When young gynecologic oncology fellow Lois Ramondetta was first summoned to the room of a new ovarian cancer patient, neither she nor the forty-nine-year-old professor of religion she encountered named Deborah Sills thought they had much in common. They certainly had no idea that they were about to embark on a transcendent odyssey that would become a soul-deep friendship. Now their heartfelt story, The Light Within, follows these two women through a decade of friendship and “big lives”—husbands, children, friends, and careers—ultimately crossing the country and traveling to foreign lands, where they spoke and wrote together about the intersection of doctors, patients, and spirituality. Both women searched together and openly for answers with honesty and intimacy until Deborah passed away in the spring of 2006.”
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Take care, Dennis