Assignment for Friday, Dec. 1

Two links here, to the same thing.  One for the audio and one for the transcript.  Read or listen to it.  It has nothing to do with what we've been talking about.  But it'll be obviously relevant to our semester.  No summary required--just pay attention and have thoughts.

AUDIO LINK

TRANSCRIPT LINK

Assignment for Wednesday, Nov. 29

Read and summarize the essay by Marquis beginning on page 49. 

Condom Failure Rates

I was thinking about how before (and even while) flying a plane, you have to go through all these checklists, like, reading them off a chart out loud and making sure.  You can make a checklist joke here, but the point is just that a refresher is always good when the topic is important--seriously.  So here's this, and simple Google searches can get more info an all of it.  HERE.

Assignment for Monday, Nov. 27

Read and summarize the article you will find at this link HERE. 

Assignment for Monday, Nov. 20

Read and summarize the next essay, by Thomson.

Assignment for Friday, Nov. 17

Read and summarize the next article, by Tooley.

Gene Editing

Inside the body this time!:  HERE.

On Snorting Caffeine

So, although I do want you to be awake for class, it turns out that some of you were quite right:  Snorting pure caffeine in anything but a truly miniscule amount could easily hurt or kill you.  I suppose that you know when I am joking about these things, but I'll take the trouble to make sure you know in this case.  I don't want you to die for many many years yet.    Just drink coffee.  A lot.

Head transplant

Or is it a body translplant?  Anyway, I think that there are plenty of ethical worries to have about the plan:  HERE.

Cool Activity

Not class-related, but maybe of interest:

This Sunday (11/19) Dr. Resinski is running a notebook-making workshop from 1:30-4:00 in SLTC 105.

Participants will learn a bit about ancient book-history and then use modern materials to make a notebook that replicates the form of a particular kind of codex form used in Egypt during the time of the Roman empire. All materials will be provided and no prior experience is necessary--but spots are limited, so if you'd like to participate, you'd need to reserve a slot in advance.

Just email her if you'd like to sign up.  You can reach her at Resinski@hendrix.edu

Assignment for Wednesday, Nov. 15

OK, as we get into this topic, we need to keep doing something that we've been doing really well so far:  talk with civility and respect.  People have lots of different ideas about these things, and they hold their beliefs strongly.  So let's tread carefully.

Read and summarize 15-22.

Assignment for Monday, Nov. 13

Let's read 436-441.  Take careful notes.  No summary required. 

Assignment for Friday, Nov. 10

This is a little different.  I'm going to link you to a particular search page on a site called "matching donors."  The site allows people who need organs to post requests so that people who might want to donate an organ can search through and pick to whom they'd like to donate.

This is private, not governmental, and it is not a waiting list.  A potential donor can directly donate to anyone profiled here, regardless of how long the recipient has been listed. 

What I'd like you to do is go through and read about thirty or so of these profiles.  You can jump around in the list, choose different seach parameters, etc.  (The "search our patient profiles" button is toward the upper left.) 

I want you to start a little list of features of these profiles that interest you.  What do recipients want you to know?  Do they include pictures?  Stories?  What else?  What do they have in common?  Make a list.  Bring it with you.

(Also, please remember, these people are hurting.  Some of the profiles might be quirky to you, but I want to maintain a very high level of respect as we discuss them.  No one wants to be in this situation.)

The link is HERE. 

Who pays for dialysis and kidney transplants?

Here's a good discussion--remember, only kidneys:  LINK.

Some updated numbers on kidneys

At the moment, the number of people on the waiting list in the US is about 80,000.

The average wait is over five years.

Something like 15-20 people die each day while waiting for a kidney.

The following web site has some prices and costs associated with black market organ sales.  Note the very big difference between what the buyer pays and what the seller receives:  LINK.

Assignment for Wednesday, Nov. 8

Read and summarize 425-433.

Note:  Sometimes my page numbers may not match up precisely with yours.  I'm using a Kindle edition, and I've noticed that it is not perfect with pagination.  Just thought I'd get that out there, with three quarters of the semester behind us...

On Surrogacy

Here's something new:  LINK.

More on organ markets

A link from Maren, about a guy from New Jersey:  HERE. 

Assignment for Monday, Nov. 6

Read and summarize 417-424.   That's two short articles.  You can summarize them on the same page.

I Swear I Wish Somebody Would Tell Me

The problem with kindness:  HERE.

Assignment for Friday, Nov. 3 --CORRECTION--

Read and summarize 141-144.  (This is a response to an article we skipped, but I think that the position being responded to here is clear enough.)