{"id":1454,"date":"2011-12-22T21:05:05","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T20:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2011-12-22T21:05:05","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T20:05:05","slug":"a-little-something-for-the-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/12\/22\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Something for the Holiday…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a little holiday challenge for you: come up with a bioethical controversy that some dark part of your soul wants to be real, if only because (a) you can get a paper out of it, and (b) it\u2019ll cause heart attacks among the sort of people who make a point of listening to The Moral Maze<\/em>. \u00a0The only real constraint that I’m placing is that your scenario has to be at least on nodding terms with plausibility.<\/p>\n

Put the title of the paper, and the abstract, in the replies.\u00a0 Since the scenarios you\u2019ll describe will almost certainly never arise, there\u2019s no need to worry about having your thunder stolen.\u00a0 Although, thinking about it, it\u2019d be interesting to see if any real papers did <\/em>materialise.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s mine to get you going.<\/p>\n

How Reproductive Cloning can Solve the Organ Shortage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saviour siblings have enjoyed a reasonable amount of attention in the bioethical literature over recent years, with a significant number of voices arguing in favour of the permissibility of deliberately choosing embryos that are tissue-matches for older siblings \u2013 though perhaps with the proviso that the parents should have been intending to reproduce anyway.\u00a0 But what about adults who develop serious health problems requiring a transplant?\u00a0 One potential solution to the problem is therapeutic cloning.\u00a0 However, this is potentially problematic, on the grounds that it involves creating a human life just to harvest component parts.\u00a0 A better solution would be to create a saviour sibling by means of reproductive cloning; this would mean patients benefit from new bone-marrow, and a nice new baby brother or sister.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sheelagh McGuinness tells me that she and Margot Brazier cooked up something to beat this a while ago, and described the outline. \u00a0It was impressively weird: I hope she posts it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a little holiday challenge for you: come up with a bioethical controversy that some dark part of your soul wants to be real, if only because (a) you can get a paper out of it, and (b) it\u2019ll cause heart attacks among the sort of people who make a point of listening to The […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[963,2141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curios","category-gratuitous-misuse-of-the-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nA Little Something for the Holiday... - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/12\/22\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Little Something for the Holiday... - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s a little holiday challenge for you: come up with a bioethical controversy that some dark part of your soul wants to be real, if only because (a) you can get a paper out of it, and (b) it\u2019ll cause heart attacks among the sort of people who make a point of listening to The [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/12\/22\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-22T20:05:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/22\\\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/22\\\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"A Little Something for the Holiday…\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-22T20:05:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/22\\\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":308,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Curios\",\"Gratuitous Misuse of the Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/22\\\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/22\\\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/22\\\/a-little-something-for-the-holiday\\\/\",\"name\":\"A Little Something for the Holiday... - 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