Reading and vocabulary

1 Check the words in bold below in your mini-dictionary. Then mark the ideas:
1 = I think this happens already.
2 = I think this will happen in the future.
3 = I don't think this will ever happen.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)

i)

an average life expectancy of over 100 years

the replacement of damaged organs using cells from human embryos
human immortality
the cloning of plants and animals
the cloning of human beings
the eradication of infectious diseases such as malaria
a vaccination against AIDS the prediction and treatment of hereditary diseases
cosmetic surgery to make your hands look younger
genetic engineering of embryos to make them grow up slim, athletic, etc.

Compare your answers in pairs.

Read the article and check your ideas. Don't worry about the gaps at this stage.
a Can you guess what these numbers refer to in the text?

2,000
1980s

1 million 21st
1997
6

75
24-hour

35
2020

b Complete the text with the numbers.

Find words or phrases in the text that mean the following.

a unlikely (section a)
b without an end in sight (section a)
almost (section b)
d looking exactly like (section c)
e acceptable reason (section c)
f remove (section d)
g to get worse (section d)
h a group of people considered superior to others (section d)
Discuss the following questions in small groups.
Which things do you feel are positive developments?
Which do you think are wrong or dangerous?

BIG QUESTIONS FACING MODERN MEDICAL SGIEN

a Will we be able to live forever one day?
Scientists predict that the average female life expectancy in the developed world will be
more than 150 by the year 2070 (it is currently (1) ________).
But it's doubtful whether the dramatic increases in life expectancy occurring in the
(2)________century - thanks to better housing, diet and the eradication of many diseases - can be
continued indefinitely.
Perhaps our best chance of living forever lies with stem cells. Stem cells are present in
embryos for a limited period in their early development. They have the potential to develop into
any tissue type in the body - skin, blood, muscles, nerves, etc. - and scientists have already begun
cloning embryos and using them to grow matching tissue to replace damaged organs in the body.
Theoretically it could be possible to continue replacing organs indefinitely - creating the prospect
of immortality, as long as there are enough stem cells to grow the necessary organs!

b Will we ever eliminate disease?

Until the (3)________, humanity seemed to be winning the war against the world's major
diseases: the use of vaccination and the development of powerful antibiotics had seen killer
diseases such as smallpox and polio all but eliminated. But since then, world-wide epidemics
such as AIDS have raised a whole new set of questions about the world's health.
Disturbingly, with the exception of AIDS, little has changed in developing countries since the
nineteenth century: for example, malaria is still estimated to kill approximately (4) ______people
a year. Poverty is the greatest cause of disease world-wide, so until serious efforts are made to
tackle that problem, the future looks bleak.
Even in the developed world, wealth and progress create their own health problems. As we
move towards a pressurised '24/7' lifestyle, there are more diseases associated with stress and
depression; an over-rich diet brings an increase in heart disease and cancer; and global warming
means that disease carriers such as mosquitoes may migrate further north.
All is not lost, however. The discovery of the human genome - the set of DNA instructions
for human life - should make it far easier to predict and treat hereditary diseases, which may be
the way forward in the future.

Will it be possible to clone human beings?

Cloning - making a copy of a plant or animal by extracting a cell and developing it
artificially - has been used on plants and animals for a very long time. The Ancient Greeks
cloned plants more than (5) ._______years ago. Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, was born in
(6)_______ and the world's first cloned kitten (CC or 'Copy Cat') appeared in 2002.
For those expecting millions of identical cloned sheep and cats, all has not gone totally
according to plan however: CC - though resembling her mother - was no more a 'copy' than a cat
born normally. More worryingly, Dolly the Sheep suffered arthritis from an early age and died
aged (7)________- half the age of a normal sheep.
One scientist has claimed 'Cloning can and does go wrong, and there is no justification for
believing that this won't happen with humans.'
Theoretically, the technology exists to clone humans too, and though the process remains
illegal in all but a few countries, there have been several claims that cloned babies have already
been created for infertile couples.

d Will we be able to buy the perfect body?

With plastic surgery to alter the shape of your nose, botox to remove wrinkles from your
forehead, collagen to make your lips fuller, liposuction to remove fat from your stomach and
dental surgery to give you perfect teeth, it seems that there is no part of the body that cannot be
improved except one. Strangely enough, until recently, there was one area that plastic
surgeons could do nothing to rejuvenate: the hands.
Not for much longer. A new technique pioneered in America promises to get rid of wrinkles,
by injecting fat from the stomach into the hands. 'After the age of (8)________, the quality of
your skin starts to deteriorate and the fat over them becomes thinner,' says Jeff Hoeyberghs of the
Wellness Kliniek in Belgium. 'We gently put the fat back in.'
However, Dr Lee M. Silver, of Princetown University predicts that by (9)_______it will be
possible to go much further than plastic surgery ever will. At a price, he believes, parents will be
able to have (10)________-old embryos genetically engineered, so that the child grows up slim,
more athletic, or even more intelligent. In time, he believes there will be two species of human
being: the 'natural' version, and genetically engineered elite, as different from ordinary humans
as we are from chimpanzees.