“Spiderman,” “The Fantastic Four,” and “Heroes” Will Not be Airing in Reality

Engineering Humans / /

Melanie Unruh, R.N., B.S.N. Intern, The Tennessee Center for Bioethics and Culture

November 2007

I admit it. I am a science fiction freak. Although I have never been a reader of comic books, recent movies such as “Spiderman” and “The Fantastic Four,” and the ideas behind the popular television series “Heroes” fascinate me.  As schools have taught that man is the product of genetic evolution, movies and television shows capitalize on this culture, encouraging the idea that we will soon be able to control our own evolution. Most commonly, cultural genetics portrays random mutations or engineered genes as the source of superhuman ...read more

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TN-CBC Position on Cloning

Stem Cell Research / /

The United Nations General Assembly in 2005 issued the United Nations’ Declaration on Human Cloning:  a Declaration which, passed by a near 3-1 majority, urges all nations to prohibit all forms of human cloning.

Human cloning is the asexual reproduction of human beings, and occurs in this manner:  the first requirement is a human egg, procured by no small procedure from a woman whose system has been stimulated with powerful medications to produce oocytes, or eggs.  Next, that egg’s nucleus is removed, and the nucleus from a somatic cell (a cell other than sperm or egg) is inserted into the enucleated ...read more

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