U05A1 Newspaper Articles Summary

In reading Leon Kass’ Bring Human: Core readings in the Humanities we have touched on five major themes – ‘The Search for Perfection’,’ Scientific Aspirations’,’ Are We Our Bodies?’,’ Many Stages, One Life’ and ‘Human Dignity’. The purpose of this paper is to identify two recent newspaper articles, written in the past three years, which each relate to two of those major themes, with emphasis on the last three. The articles I have chosen are, in f act, each related to several of those themes. The first article, “Face transplant: Transplant recipient learns to accept his fate, and his new face” published July 16, 2011 in the LA Times and written by Jan Jarvis, conveys the story of America’s first full face transplant recipient. There are elements of ‘The Search for Perfection’ along with ‘Are We Our Bodies?’ in this gripping story. The second article, “A Look to the Future: Humans in 50 Years” published May 4, 2011 in the Irish Times written by John Holden, conveys the results of four very intriguing interviews whereby Holden sought out preeminent scientists in vastly different fields and asked them to consider aloud, where humanity could be in fifty years time. This article most certainly addresses the theme of ‘Scientific Aspirations’, but also touches on ‘The Search for Perfection’ and ‘Many Stages, One Life’.

We begin with something many never dreamed possible, the story of America’s first full face transplant recipient. In “Face transplant: Transplant recipient learns to accept his fate, and his new face” Jarvis (2011) introduces us to Dallas Wiens, who in November of 2008 “had been painting a Forth Worth church when the cherry picker he was riding in brushed against a high voltage electrical wire.” (¶ 17) The accident left him without sight and robbed him of all of his facial features. Left disfigured, and in a coma, it was unclear if Weins would survive; however, it was the smallest of gestures that provided hopeful for his loved ones. Jarvis tells...