The Handmaid's Tale - Revisited

Just in time for Mother’s Day (May 10th this year - mark your calendars!), the Women’s Bioethics Project Book Club has released its next selection: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Download the book club kit developed by WBP advisory board member Sue Trinidad and join us as we explore the bioethical implications of commercial surrogacy, the role of genetic relatedness, redefining concepts of motherhood and the commodification of women's bodies.

Read and discuss with your Mom, your daughters, and friends – let us know what you think – join the conversation!

A Good Read

Another solid addition to the WBP Book Club is Devra Davis' The Secret History of the War on Cancer.

For those of you who may have already read this book—this review comes as no surprise. But for those of you new to this author, one thing comes across quite clearly when you read what she has to say is this: Devra Davis knows a thing or two about cancer. And she did her homework when researching the data for this book.

Davis, who holds a Ph.D and a M.P.H., is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She was appointed in 1994 by President Clinton to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, and served as Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Science.

In “War”, she paints a grim and compelling portrait of the health care industry, and how the leaders of the industries that made cancer-causing products, sometimes profited from the drugs and technologies created to fight the disease. According to Davis, for years we’ve become immersed in fighting the wrong war, directing our efforts against the wrong enemy, using the wrong weapons.

In her essay, “Deadly Secrets” she outlines an unintentional web of lies, and half-truths, perpetuated by our world industries, in both exposing and contaminating the world and our bodies with cancer-causing agents, and then covering up or suppressing the knowledge and information from the public for many years—even by health care industry scientists. According to Davis’ website, over 10 million cancer deaths over the last 30 years could have been prevented! Also among her findings: that implementation of the pap smear as a diagnostic, life-saving tool, was held back for more than a decade amid fears that that the test would undermine the private practice of medicine.

Again, a good, gripping read.

"Novel" public health ethics

World War Z, billed as "an oral history of the Zombie Wars," is a novel by Max Brooks that purports to tell the history of the global battle against the zombie horde. There are of course a number of horror movies along these lines--among them the gorefest 28 Days Later and its equally horrifying sequel, 28 Weeks Later--and a film version of WWZ is supposedly in the works.

Spoiler alert:
The plan credited in WWZ with saving humanity involves the sacrifice of isolated communities: these unfortunates are left behind, as a distraction for the swarm of zombies, while the rest of the population flees. Once the communities have been completely "zombified," the army moves in mows them down. It's not an especially realistic scenario--or at least, one hopes not! But it does raise some interesting questions about what kinds of measures can, or should, be taken in the case of public health emergencies, and whether we all become utilitarians under such circumstances.

Camus' The Plague is, of course, the classic. Geraldine Brooks' Year of Wonders is also very good. And I just picked up a copy of The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen, which is another quarantine story, this one set here in the Pacific Northwest. You'll probably get a review of it here one of these days ... when I have time for leisure reading again!

A Good Read

Another solid addition to the WBP Book Club is Devra Davis' The Secret History of the War on Cancer.

For those of you who may have already read this book—this review comes as no surprise. But for those of you new to this author, one thing comes across quite clearly when you read what she has to say is this: Devra Davis knows a thing or two about cancer. And she did her homework when researching the data for this book.

Davis, who holds a Ph.D and a M.P.H., is the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She was appointed in 1994 by President Clinton to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, and served as Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Science.

In “War”, she paints a grim and compelling portrait of the health care industry, and how the leaders of the industries that made cancer-causing products, sometimes profited from the drugs and technologies created to fight the disease. According to Davis, for years we’ve become immersed in fighting the wrong war, directing our efforts against the wrong enemy, using the wrong weapons.

In her essay, “Deadly Secrets” she outlines an unintentional web of lies, and half-truths, perpetuated by our world industries, in both exposing and contaminating the world and our bodies with cancer-causing agents, and then covering up or suppressing the knowledge and information from the public for many years—even by health care industry scientists. According to Davis’ website, over 10 million cancer deaths over the last 30 years could have been prevented! Also among her findings: that implementation of the pap smear as a diagnostic, life-saving tool, was held back for more than a decade amid fears that that the test would undermine the private practice of medicine.

Again, a good, gripping read.

Having Cake is Different From Eating Cake

The National Academy of Sciences has just released a new book, Science, Evolution, and Creationism, to explain the differences between religion and science, and to clarify the currently muddled discussion on matters entangled in the current conflict.

NYT reports:

...it is intended specifically for the lay public and because it devotes much of its space to explaining the differences between science and religion, and asserting that acceptance of evolution does not require abandoning belief in God.

...The 70-page book, “Science, Evolution and Creationism,” says, among other things, that “attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist.” And it offers statements from several eminent biologists and members of the clergy to support the view.

In the past year, there has been a significant push-back by prominent atheists and skeptics against dogma-based attacks on science, but this new publication will be key in defusing the artificially constructed conflict between two completely different human endeavors. Hopefully, this year will mark the emergence of a new movement to continue this effort.