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Text 2. Medical Advances




Ex.1 Think of examples of recent advances in the these fields.

Medicine Surgery Fertility treatment

 

Ex.2 What future advances in these fields do you expect to see?

Ex.3 Read the text..Five key questions about modern medical science.

 

What exactly is cloning and do I need to worry about it?

Cloning is 'making a copy of a plant or animal by taking a cell from it and developing it artificially. Plants were cloned in Ancient Greece over 2,000 years ago, and the first cloned frog appeared in 1968. But interest in cloning grew in 1997 when Dr Ian Wilmut and his colleagues from Edinburgh University announced the birth of the world’s first cloned sheep, Dolly. The truth is that there is no chance that any copy of a human being would be identical either physically or mentally, any more than children are identical to their parents. The possible benefits of cloning, however, are numerous, for artificially producing human tissues and organs for transplant. Biologists have already genetically engineered headless frogs so it may in future be possible to clone headless humans whose organs could be used for transplants. But would we want to?

How can transplants from other animals help humans?

A British girl born with a rare bone condition that left her with only one ear, had a new one grown for her at the Massachusetts Eуе and Ear Infirmary in the USA. By taking cells from her existing ear and transplanting them onto the back of a mouse, scientists grew her another one, which could then be transplanted back. American scientists have also used sheep blood cells to make a universal blood which could be given to any patient, regardless of their blood group while British scientists are close to manufacturing artificial blood, with the aid of milk from genetically-altered cows and sheep. Scientists have also transplanted monkeys' heads on to new bodies, paving the way for head transplants to be performed on humans.

Are we any nearer a cure for cancer or AIDS?

Scientists have produced an impressive list of things that might help prevent cancer: green tea, green salads, brazil nuts, spinach, kidneys, mushrooms, and even lipstick. And although no cure has yet been found for AIDS, extraordinary advances have been made in its treatment. Drugs called protease inhibitors can halt and perhaps even reverse the progress of the virus in the patient's body, so it may be that AIDS will soon no longer be an incurable disease. The problem is the expense: a course of treatment costs many thousands of dollars, and so will do nothing to stop the epidemic in poor countries, where the money would be better spent on preventing malaria, cholera and tuberculosis.

So what can we cure nowadays?

If you're a grey-haired, balding, colour-blind man who snores, there may be good news on the horizon. A doctor in England has announced that by adding a small amount of pigment to an ordinary pair of glasses he has been able to cure colour-blindness.A drug has been tested on dogs which stimulates muscles in their upper airway, thus stopping them from snoring. To prevent grey hair, a special shampoo has been developed that fools pigment cells into producing melanin, which gives hair its colour, and there may now even be a cure for baldness.

Why would anyone want to implant a computer chip into a human brain?

Could it be possible for all the things you need to know to be implanted in your brain on a silicon chip? Doctors at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany claim to have found a way of connecting nerve cells to a silicon chip. Such implants — which have so far only been successful in rats could be used to restore vision to people who have become blind or repair nerve damage after a stroke, but also to increase human intelligence. In theory, chips could be programmed to include all the knowledge a human being is likely to need during their life, so eliminating the need for school work!

 

Ex.3 Answer the questions.

1. What is cloning?

2. What was cloned first?

3. Will it ever be possible to produce exact copies of human beings? What are the possible advantages of cloning human beings?

4. How can transplants from other animals help humans?

5. What might help prevent cancer?

6. What are the disadvantages of the new drugs that have been produced to treat AIDS?

7. Are there any ways to cure colour- blindness, baldness and snoring?

8. What are the possible uses for microchips implanted into the human brain?

 

Ex.4 Which ideas in the text do you think:

a) positive steps forward?

b) are worrying, from an ethical point of view?

c) should be prohibited?

Explain why.

 




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