Radio+Lab+Listening+Assignment

=RADIO LAB PODCAST LISTENING ASSIGNMENT= ==

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 * 1. Listen to the Radio Lab podcast: "So Called Life".**

The podcast can also be downloaded and saved by going to the following address: **http://www.radiolab.org/2008/apr/07/**


 * 2. Record your written responses to the two discussion topics posted below.**

**Discussion Topic #1:** In this episode you listened to Karen Keegan’s story about her disputed motherhood and Dr. Silver’s story about a college student who wanted to be impregnated by a chimpanzee. Use one or both of these stories to help explain your answer to the following question: What makes a human, human?

**Discussion Topic #2:** In the last part of the episode you heard about recent achievements in synthetic biology. Brian Baynes talked about how his company Condon Devices makes and sells genes, Geneticist George Church developed bacteria that can burp diesel fuel, and biotechnology pioneer Craig Venter explained how humans might be able to make a living thing from scratch. Use this information to help you answer the following questions:

Do humans have the right to play God? Can any good come of humans playing God? Can humans come to terms with playing God?

While pondering your answer also consider the following quotation taken from the book, //Remaking Eden// by Lee M. Silver. Human essence came into existence simply because those with it could outcompete and kill those without it. But if human minds have the ability to contemplate and direct changes in the copies of their own genomes that they give to future generations, the human mind is much more than the genes that brought it into existence. While selfish genes do, indeed, control all other forms of life, master and slave have switched positions in human beings, who now have the power not only to control but to create new genes for themselves. Why not seize this power? Why not control what has been left to chance in the past? Indeed, we control all other aspects of our children’s lives and identities through powerful social and environmental influences and, in some cases, with the use of powerful drugs like Ritalin or Prozac. On what basis can we reject positive genetic influences on a person’s essence when we accept the rights of parents to benefit their children in every other way? (236).