Word: suggestions
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last week the Justice Department released stunning news: violent- and property-crime rates, which have been dropping since 1991, are at their lowest level in 24 years. In 1997, murder dropped 8% and robbery fell 17%; early 1998 figures suggest the trend continues. Experts can't agree on why, citing factors from better policing to a booming economy. But one of the most fascinating developments seems to be that crack is now your father's drug. Users are maturing, if not heading into middle age, and dealers are less aggressive in recruiting youths, who tend to be turned...
...reports suggest that new non-invasive techniques can detect blocked arteries before a heart attack occurs. In one study, scientists used an ultrafast C.T. scan and computer technology to view and monitor plaque. In the other, researchers successfully used the scan with an injectable dye to see if arteries had actually narrowed. One conventional method, the stress test, isn't always reliable; in angiograms, the other technique, a catheter must be threaded to the heart...
Still more concerns, legal or otherwise, could arise with the increasing availability of tests for so-called low-penetrance genes, such as those associated with breast or colon cancer. These don't necessarily mean that the carrier will be stricken but suggest an increased risk, especially in the presence of certain "co-factors" like poor diet, alcohol or smoking. Such tests are already available for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast-cancer genes but at a cost of about $2,700 each, and with their limited predictive abilities, only a few are performed. Still, they raise critical questions for any woman...
...there's nothing to suggest that things are nearly so dire: DNA fingerprinting has been used for years, and so far it is only wrongdoers who have real cause to wish it hadn't. But when it comes to scientific advances, human beings have often been a slapdash species--racing out ahead with a new technology before fully appreciating its power. If DNA fingerprinting should get into the wrong hands, society's law-abiding members may find they have more in common with its lawbreakers than they ever dreamed possible...
...making a copy of oneself or some famous person, a parent is deliberately specifying the way he or she wishes that child to develop. In recent years, particularly in the U.S., much importance has been placed on the right of individuals to reproduce in ways that they wish. I suggest that there is a greater need to consider the interests of the child and to reject these proposed uses of cloning...