THE FIRST ‘DESIGNER BABY’: The Role of Narratives,Cliche´s and Metaphors in the Year 2000 Media Debate

The public do not like, and we do not like the idea of designer babies (Ruth Deech, then Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, quoted in The Independent, 18 October 2000). We are all on the slippery slope-the question we should be asking is: skis or crampons (Professor John Harris, The Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester, in an interview with Susan Johnson). LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL GROUNDING OF THE DESIGNER BABY DEBATE In October 2000, news was released of the world’s first ‘designer baby’—Adam Nash who was born on 29 August 2000 in the United States. He was chosen as a donor for his sister Molly, who suffered with Fanconi Anaemia, which is a rare genetic disease. Without a bone marrow transplant, Molly would have died before the age of 10. A suitable donor had not been found, so her parents decided to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select an embryo that would not carry the disease-causing gene and would become a brother and a donor for Molly. At the time of his birth, Adam’s cord blood was collected and later transplanted into his sister. Initial reports suggest that the treatment has been successful.     

Program Context,Sensation Seeking,and Attention to Televised Anti-Drug Public Service Announcements

This study examined effects of message and program sensation value, sensation seeking, and drug use on visual attention to televised anti-drug public service announcements (PSAs) among 318 18–22-year-olds, who were placed individually in a simulated home environment with the opportunity to read from print media selections and/or watch a half-hour TV program including two presentations of the test PSA. The TV program was high or low in sensation value. High sensation seekers paid greater attention to high sensation value programming and to PSA embedded in such programming, whereas low sensation seekers paid greater attention to PSA embedded in low sensation value programs. Ongoing attention to a program may help to sustain attention to a subsequent PSA. The findings relate to an activation model of information exposure and indicate that program sensation value and sensation seeking are important factors to be considered in the placement oftelevised drug abuse prevention messages.     

Social Contagion and Multiplexity Communication Networks as Predictors of Commitment and Role Ambiguity

This research compares two contrasting perspectives of social contagion processes associated with the organizational outcome variables of commitment and role ambiguity in organizations. The two perspectives are structural equivalence (which focuses on the positions of individuals in social networks) and cohesion (which focuses on an individual's direct communication contacts). It was hypothesized that structural equivalence would be more associated with role ambiguity and that commitment would be more associated with cohesion. The relationship between these variables and multiplex content networks was also studied. It was hypothesized that commitment was a much more broadly based concept in the sense that a number of functional content networks systematically relate to it. On the other hand, role ambiguity was hypothesized to be more closely associated with uniplex networks, especially those related to job duties and organizational goals. While there were exceptions, generally the research results supported the hypotheses relating to multiplexity. The hypotheses that structural equivalence was more associated with role ambiguity and that commitment was more associated with cohesion also were supported in this research.