Word: humanizing
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Treves, a dedicated surgeon, has sought out John Merrick to study his deformities and to present him to a conference of physicians as "the most perverted and degraded form of a human being" he has ever seen. Because Merrick will only grunt and growl, Treves takes him for an imbecile: "For his own sake, I pray to God he's an idiot." But the doctor soon discovers that his specimen is not only intelligent, but well-read and inquisitive, a sensitive young man painfully aware of his condition. Refusing to return him to his sideshow master, Treves sets...
With their success, Genentech's founders have also generated controversy in the scientific community. The company has worked closely with the University of California, sharing laboratory space and sometimes employees. When Genentech's manufacture of the human-growth hormone duplicated results published by university staff members, there were accusations that the company was secretly using the research. Genentech agreed last June to pay the university...
...sets glow eight hours a day, the numbers tell nothing about how closely they watch or even why. Considering their frequent solitude, Hirsch suggests, TV "is probably more of a solution to their problems than a cause." Other students of TV's impact have also ignored a crucial human factor. Hirsch says: "The men in the white coats give viewers no credit for having personal experiences from which to draw moral significance...
...prose. Reflecting on World War II and the Nazi occupation that shaped his outlook, Milosz observed: "The act of writing a poem is an act of faith; yet if the screams of the tortured are audible in the poet's room, is not his activity an offense to human suffering? And if the next hour may bring his death and the destruction of his manuscript, should the poet engage in such a pastime...
Honesty, as Diogenes would caution, has never been the strong suit of the human species. Mandatory oath taking in legal proceedings was not invented out of faith in the natural probity of witnesses. Everybody fibs, alas. It is also true that every epoch has its roster of villains, its quota of predatory deceit. Yet today the roster seems far longer than usual, and most observers agree that the quota of duplicity-from artful dodging to elaborate fraud-is growing intolerably large...