Word: cystic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Some things about Fenway are just a little bit different. Where I come from, an usher is the 80-year-old man named Ernie at the movie theater who takes my ticket and reminds me to donate spare change to cystic fibrosis research. At Shea Stadium, where the Mets have languished under the roar of LaGuardia air traffic since the 1960s, all the ushers are brittle octogenarians dressed up in cute age-appropriate Mets gear—orange bow ties and suspenders. But at Fenway, the ushers double as beefy security guards, always ready to hustle up the bleacher stairs...
...first consideration is whether, even if we agreed on a good thing genetic engineering could accomplish (say, preventing cystic fibrosis), it would still be wrong in all cases to use it. Unless there's something purposeful about the particular assortment of genes we're born with, there seems no reason not to change them. We interfere with natural biological processes every time we take an antibiotic, and only a very few religious sects maintain that curing disease goes against the rightful order of the world. To prohibit genetic engineering but not any other intervention in our biology seems no less...
...aren't we opening a Pandora's box of ethical conundrums? If we know which genes lead to eye color, will we choose our children's appearance? Will insurance companies deny coverage to those with a genetic flaw? If we're capable of eliminating the genetic malfunctions that cause cystic fibrosis, for example, but only the richest among us can afford the procedure, are we paving the way for genetic bigotry, or worse, for a "master race" mentality...
Another delivery system, the inhaler, is getting a second look. While inhalers have been used for years to treat asthma and, more recently, cystic fibrosis, only 10% of the medication actually reaches the deepest regions of the lungs. Battelle and other companies are designing inhalers that use compressed air and drug powders to push much more of the medication deep enough into the lungs to be effectively absorbed. Among the drugs that researchers hope will be administered with the new inhalers are antibiotics, insulin and interferon. Other new systems enable doctors to apply drugs through the eyes or through...