Arthur Caplan Quotes

• People ask, 'Is the science going to run ahead of the ethics?' I don't think that's always the problem. I think it's that the science runs ahead of the politics. Bioethics can alert people to something coming down the road, but it doesn't mean policy and politicians are going to pay attention. They tend to respond when there's an immediate crisis. The job of the ethicist, in some ways, is to warn or be prophetic. You can yell loudly, but you can't necessarily get everybody to leave the cinema, so to speak.

  Arthur Caplan

  Running, Jobs, Mean

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• A moral principle in genetic testing is that it should always be done with the consent of the individual. No one wants someone snooping into his DNA.

  Arthur Caplan

  Dna, Principles, Done

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• Do good in the name of children. Do good in the name of public health.

  Arthur Caplan

  Children, Names, Public Health

  "The Vaccine War". "Frontline", www.pbs.org. April 27, 2010.

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• The challenge is for bioethicists to position themselves to be on panels, boards and other decision making bodies where oublic policy positions wil be established-where the exploding changes in health care that are now underway will be addressed.

  Arthur Caplan

  Decision, Challenges, Boards

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• Renegade scientists and totalitarian loonies are not the folks most likely to abuse genetic engineering. You and I are-not because we are bad but because we want to do good. In a world dominated by competition, parents understandably want to give their kids every advantage. ... The most likely way for eugenics to enter into our lives is through the front door as nervous parents ... will fall over one another to be first to give Junior a better set of genes.

  Arthur Caplan

  Fall, Kids, Eugenics

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• The time to talk about it [genetic engineering to improve a baby's genes] in schools and churches and magazines and debate societies is now. If you wait, five years from now the gene doctor will be hanging out the MAKE A SMARTER BABY sign down the street.

  Arthur Caplan

  Baby, School, Doctors

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• With terminal illness, your fate is sealed. Morally, we're more comfortable with a situation where you don't cause death, but you hasten it. We think that's a bright line. Comparing the U.S. with Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal for patients suffering 'intolerable health problems.'

  Arthur Caplan

  Suicide, Fate, Science

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• [Cloning] can't make you immortal because clearly the clone is a different person. If I take twins and shoot one of them, it will be faint consolation to the dead one that the other one is still running around, even though they are genetically identical. So the road to immortality is not through cloning.

  Arthur Caplan

  Running, Different, Cloning

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• The more you start prohibiting donors, the more you are going to have less blood in the supply. It's still not clear you can get it from blood transfusions.

  Arthur Caplan

  Blood, Donors, Clear

  "Red Cross wants tighter restrictions on blood donors" by Pete Hartogs, www.cnn.com. January 17, 2001.

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• Bodies aren't the same as Coca-Cola cans.

  Arthur Caplan

  Body, Coca Cola

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• The use of fetuses as organ and tissue donors is a ticking time bomb of bioethics.

  Arthur Caplan

  Fetus, Use, Bombs

  "Help From The Unborn Fetal-cell" by Joe Levine, content.time.com. June 24, 2001.

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• There has never been just 'coach class' health care, but with these amenities you are seeing people get priorities according to your ability to pay. It's one thing to say you get perks; it's another to say you can buy your way to the head of the line.

  Arthur Caplan

  Money, Class, People

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