Unknown to the Greenbergs, Dr. Matalon patented the gene, and then demanded high fees for further tests. Many families that had contributed tissues and money to help discover the gene now could not afford the test. In 2003 the Greenbergs and other concerned parties sued Matalon and Miami Children's Hospital, claiming breach of informed consent, unjust enrichment, fraudulent con cealment, and misappropriation of trade secrets. The suit was settled out of court. As a result, the test is more widely available, although fees must still be paid to Miami Children's Hospital. The ethics of the behavior of physicians and institutions involved in this case are still hotly debated.
Psychology News
ADULTS DON'T GROW UP ANYMORE
British Researcher Blames Formal Education Professors, Scientists "Strikingly Immature"
If you believe the adults around you are acting like children, you're probably right. In technical terms, it is called "psychological neoteny," the persistence of childhood behavior into adulthood. And it's on the rise.
According to Dr. Bruce Charlton, evolutionary psychiatrist at Newcastle upon Tyne, human beings now take longer to reach mental maturity - and many never do so at all.
Charlton believes this is an accidental by-product of formal education that lasts well into the twenties. "Formal education requires a child-like stance of receptivity," which "counteracts the attainment of psychological maturity" that would normally occur in the late teens or early twenties.
He notes that "academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature." He calls them "unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact."
Earlier human societies, such as hunter-gatherers, were more stable and thus adulthood was attained in the teen years. Now, however, with rapid social change and less reliance on physical strength, maturity is more often postponed. He notes that markers of maturity such as graduation from college, marriage, and first child formerly occurred at fixed ages, but now may happen over a span of decades.
Thus, he says, "in an important psychological sense, some modern people never actually become adults."
Charlton thinks this may be adaptive. "A child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge" may be useful in navigating the increased instability of the modern world, he says, where people are more likely to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places. But this comes at the cost of "short attention span, frenetic novelty-seeking, ever shorter cycles of arbitrary fashion, and...a pervasive emotional and spiritual shallowness." He added that modern people "lack a profundity of character which seemed commoner in the past."
CHapter 042
Ellis," Mrs. Levine said,"what is that tube?"
Her son was holding a silver canister with a little plastic cup at the tip. They were in the living room of his parents' house in Scarsdale. Outside, workmen were hammering on the garage. Making repairs: getting the house ready to sell.
"What's in the tube?" she said again.
"It's a new genetic treatment, Mom."
"I don't need it."
"It rejuvenates your skin. Makes it young."
"That's not what you told your father," she said. "You told your father that it would improve his sex life."
"Well..."
"He put you up to this, didn't he?"
"No, Mom."
"Listen to me," she said. "I don't want to improve my sex life. I have never been happier than I am right now."
"The two of you sleep in separate rooms."
"Because he snores."
"Mom, this spray will help you."
"I don't want any help."
"It will make you happier, I promise..."
"You never did listen, even as a child."
"Now, Mom..."
"And you never got any better, your whole adult life."
"Mom, please..." Ellis was starting to get angry. He wasn't supposed to be the one doing this to her, anyway. His brother Aaron was supposed to do it. Aaron was his mother's favorite. But Aaron had a court date, he'd said. So Ellis was stuck with it.
He moved toward her with the canister.
"Get away from me, Ellis."
He continued to approach.
"I amyour mother, Ellis."
She stamped on his toe. He howled in pain, and in the next moment grabbed her by the back of the head, pushed the canister over her nose, and squeezed. She writhed and twisted.
"I will not! I will not!"
But she was breathing it in. Even as she protested.
"No, no,no! "
He held it there for a while. It was as if he were strangling her, the same sort of grip, the same sensation, as she struggled in his arms. It made him incredibly uncomfortable. The flesh of her cheeks against his fingers as she twisted and protested. He smelled the powder of her makeup.
Finally Ellis stepped away from her.
"How dare you!" she said. "Howdare you!" She hurried from the room, swearing.
Ellis leaned against the wall. He felt dizzy, to have physically accosted his mother like that. But it had to be done, he told himself.It had to be done.
Chapter 43-48
CHapter 043
Things were notgoing well, Rick Diehl thought, as he wiped pureed green peas off his face and paused to clean his glasses. It was five in the afternoon. The kitchen was hot. His three kids were sitting at the kitchen table screaming and hitting one another. They were throwing hot dog relish and mustard. The mustard stained everything.
The baby, in the high chair, refused to eat and spat her food right back out. Conchita should have been feeding her, but Conchita had vanished that afternoon. She had become increasingly unreliable ever since Rick's wife left. Broads stick together. Probably he would have to replace Conchita, which was a big pain in the neck, to hire somebody new, and of course she would sue him. Maybe he could negotiate a settlement with her before she went to court.