Science Saves Lives - Balance Between Science and Technology

Tatiana Smith

355-100:81

Richard Cusumano

12 November 2013        

Rough Draft

                Science Saves Lives

         Lisa Belkin, Lauren Slater

            The evolution of science and technology has always impacted society. In society today everything is either controlled with a click of a button or a flick of a switch. Science and technology presumably help make life simpler. They hold massive control over man due to the fact that we might feel its needed in order for survival. For instance, teenagers always “need” their cell phones to communicate with one another. Many feel as if they do not have the technology provided, that survival is not possible. This shows that the evolution of science and technology has taken an control over on humanity and its nature. It also supposed to help improve human life, solving mental problems and save lives. In Lauren Slater’s “Who Holds the Clicker?” Mario’s OCD always had a negative control over his life. Married with children, unable to help support his family, he felt like “a prisoner within himself.” His last hope was to going to the doctors to perform a drastic surgery that involves the use of technology to control his behavior and to save his life. Helpless and in their last hope like Mario, two families also put lives into the hands of science and technology to help improve and save the lives of their children. Lisa Belkin’s “The Made-to-Order Savior” discusses the life of two families with children with critical health issues. These two families reach their last hope to save their children, and decide to create more children in order to save the others’ lives. With the help of science and technology to create these babies to match these two children blood type, these two children might have a chance at a healthy by using body parts of their siblings. It would seem as if science and technology is the way to save and improve life but some argue different. One might argue, “Why create a life with the use of science and technology just to save another?” One might also argue “Why have doctors use technologies control one’s behavior?” Along those line, the main argument would be “Where are the human morals?” Both authors discusses the struggle and desperation of people who want to save and improve lives and they only hope was putting lives in the hand of science and technology. Science and technology, if used correctly can create a balance between what is ethical due to the fact it is being used to save lives and improve the morals in which humans live by.

           In times of desperation, people would do anything in order to survive putting morals and ethics at risk. When one is in desperate position between life and death, he will find all possibilities to choose life and not death. Children are sacred to their parents and if bad news is brought upon parents that their child is going to die, it is normal to go to extreme measurements to save their child’s life. In Belkin, The Nashs’ were criticized for using science and technology to create a new life in order to save another. Their response was “We did what we need to do to keep our daughter from dying. That is what any parent would do. Isn’t this what parents supposed to do? How can anything be wrong with that?” (17) It was explained later on that the Nashs’ wanted to have other children in future. Their last hope was a chance to both save their daughter and expand their family. The use of science of science and technology to save lives is ethical due to the fact that there is no one suffering from the operation. The unborn child grows up healthy while saving their older, therefore helping improve and save lives. Ethics would have been violated if the family went through with the operation not wanting to the child but just to use to save their daughter and not caring about what happens to the second child after. Mario can relate with the families in Belkin who used science and technology to create life because he used it also to improve his own life. When someone has a mental disorder it becomes challenging to live a normal life. Life gets complicated because they are not able to do what others do due to the fact that their disorder is holding them back. When there is an option out there that can improve their life and no longer having setbacks because of the disorder, they will take that risk. Slater discusses the desperation Mario had to improve his life without having to worry about his OCD. “Mario, who’d tried some 40 different combinations of medications, knows this all too well…He decided the implants were well worth the risk.” (238) When he decided that it was worth the risk to have a microchip implanted in his head that was a risk he was willing to take. Ethics cannot be argued because that was a choice he made for himself. Unlike a person in prison and was forced to perform the operation, he willing took that risk in hopes to improve the life he lives now. Science and technology was able to help both the families of the sick children and Mario. Their last hope was to take drastic measures involving science and technology in hopes to improve their life. The moral cost of these drastic procedures was nothing due to the fact that the intentions were good and no one was suffering from the decisions that were made. If science and technology could improve humanity the argument of ethics should not be a problem.