Free Press – February 15, 2007

Arthur Caplan, Kay Merkel, Father Riegler

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Before I return to Dr. Arthur Caplan, the Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Medical Ethics, and his fascinating talk on Benjamin Franklin’s 301^st birthday, I have an observation and an apology.

Did you see the article about Clair and Katherine “Kay” Merkel endowing the Pennridge school district with a $103,000 scholarship? The two Merkels taught in the Pennridge schools for 43 years. Clair died in 1990. At 86, Kay lives at the Pine Run community near Doylestown.

I remember them very well. During my college days, Clair was a gifted math teacher and tutored me for my statistics courses. I never would have made it through without him. He had enormous patience. Kay was a music teacher and is still a very upbeat, sunny person.

The Merkels never had children…the kids at Pennridge became their surrogate family. The Merkel endowment will help Pennridge students attend college. This world needs more people like the Merkels.

And now an apology.

Father Fred Riegler is a history buff. The Pastor of St. Isidore’s Church noted that I had erred in my January 25^th column. I was making the point that Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, chose a southern Democrat as his 1864 running mate. Is it time for Democrats and Republicans to form a joint ticket for the 2008 election, I wondered? Our divided nation seems paralyzed…there is no room for civil debate.

Lincoln was such a healer. He chose William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates for his Cabinet in spite of the fact that they were Lincoln’s archrivals. They had run against him for the Republican nomination in 1860. But Lincoln defied his party and selected a Democrat to be his Vice President. This remarkable story about the political genius of Lincoln is recounted in Doris Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals.”

I should have stopped with Lincoln while I was ahead. But I added the election of 1796 when John Adams (a Federalist) and Thomas Jefferson (a Democratic-Republican) became President and Vice President. Father Fred was correct in reminding me that in 1796, the federal House of Representatives chose the executive branch, not the Electoral College. In the election of 1796, who ever received the highest number of votes became the President (Adams) and the runner up became the Vice President (Jefferson).

My instruction continued. “The twelfth amendment remedied that problem,” Father Fred added. “Incidentally,” he wrote, “had the 3/5 compromise not been in place (it counted slaves as 3/5 of free voters even though slaves could not vote; it was a bone to get the [southern] slave states to vote for the [1787] constitution), Adams [not Jefferson] would have won on the basis of free population [in the election of 1800].” The 3/5 rule is why Jefferson was known as the Negro President. (That’s the title of another fascinating book that my friend J. Lawrence Grim gave to me several years ago. Thanks for the history lesson, Father Fred.

And now to the main topic.

“What do you think about cloning, stem cell research, brain enhancement, or conducting experiment on newly dead patients,” Dr. Arthur Caplan asks in his new book, “Smart Mice, Not-So-Smart People.” He used Franklin’s 301^st birthday on January 17^th to launch a discussion about the ethical problems of today and what Franklin might have thought about them.

“Caplan provokes discussion on issues at the center of the new genetics: cloning in the laboratory and in the media, stem cell research, experiments on human subjects, blood donation and organ transplantation, and health care delivery,” states his book cover.

There are 74 ethical dilemmas in “Smart Mice…” which is divided into eleven major topics: General Interest (duty versus conscience); End of Life; Engineering Ourselves; Engineering plants, microbes, and animals; Experimentation ethics (research on the newly dead); Health reform; Human cloning and stem cell research; Mapping ourselves (genetics); Reproduction (are you ever too old to have a baby?); The state of science in the United States (who wins when religion squares off against science?); and Donation and transplantation of organs. Caplan’s introduction is titled, “Is America going to Hell?”

You get the drift.

Caplan gave two presentations during the Franklin birthday celebration. “Franklin would have been very interested in bio ethics,” he observed. “Franklin would have a blog, if he were living today.

“Bio ethics is America’s public attitude,” Caplan continued.

I was fascinated to watch the heads nod affirmatively and negatively as he listed the moral dilemmas, which cause such angst today. About 100 heads wagged in agreement or disagreement when Caplan identified abortion, embryonic stem cell research, physician assisted suicide, end of life decisions and others.

But when he addressed the need for organ donations and how to insure an adequate supply, all the heads nodded yes. Caplan gave a compelling argument about the need for organs. “There is a desperate need for hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys,” he said. Too few Americans have volunteered to become organ donors.

“Franklin would have reversed the process,” Caplan suggested. He reasoned that most Americans believe in the value of organ transplants. Caplan thinks that Franklin would have had Congress write a law that permits physicians to harvest organs from the deceased unless the citizen specifically objected before he died.

Come to think of it, I wonder why state legislatures and the Congress haven’t tackled this subject. The next time I have a chat with Paul Clymer, Rob Wonderling, and Patrick Murphy, I’ll remind them about Arthur Caplan and Benjamin Franklin. It will be fascinating to hear their response.

“Franklin believed in virtue,” Caplan told us, and listed Franklin’s 12 [virtues]: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, and chastity. A Quaker friend suggested that Franklin add thirteenth to the list, humility. Caplan reminded his listeners that Franklin advised us to imitate Jesus and Socrates made good sense.

What more can I say?

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith