1. Read the case study below and respond to it with an original argument. Be sure to:
Reference the readings from this week in your argument
Reference a bioethical principle or theory in your argument
(Case study begins by explaining that sometimes cats need renal transplants. Owners must find donor cats and if homes cannot be found for the donor cat after the transplant, then the donor cat is euthanized. Also, when cats use organ donations from donor cats, they must undergo chemotherapy to preserve the donated organ’s function.)
…A combination of two recent scientific breakthroughs now provides a unique opportunity for organ
replacement. Mammal clones have been developed from cells of adult sheep. Researchers have also
recently used biotechnology to produce headless fetuses in mice by knocking out a gene responsible for the development of the head. By performing this action at an early stage in morphological development, the researchers can produce a mouse fetus that is born with its head missing. In other words, when the fetus is born, it has all of its organs except the brain. Thus, it has no means of receiving or acting on any impulses generated by the peripheral nervous system, and is essentially nonsentient. Mice fetuses occurring naturally with this gene deficiency do not usually survive the early stages of pregnancy. Most of the mutant mice die at midgestation with placental defects but a rare few progress all the way to birth.
This technology would require further development before headless cats could be achieved. However, by combining this technology with mammalian adult cell-cloning technologies, it may be possible to produce headless cat fetuses. These headless cats would be an excellent source of tissue-type-matched tissues such as bone marrow, or organs, such as the liver. These tissues or organs could save the lives of sick cats. Thus, no healthy cats would have to be euthanized in order to save a sick pet.
The same headless-fetus technology could be developed further to apply to people. That is, researchers could use biotechnology to clone your cells, and produce a headless human fetus that matched you. If we went forward with the technology, the fetus would be born with most of its organs present except the head. Thus, having no means of receiving or acting on any impulses generated by its peripheral nervous system, it would essentially be nonsentient. The fetus might be an excellent source of tissue-typematched organs for you. It might, for example, provide you with a bone marrow transplant or a liver transplant should you need it, and painful chemotherapy following the transplant operation would be unnecessary.
Reference: (http://www.biotech.iastate.edu/wp_single/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/organ.pdf)