Name:
Date:
"Calendar"
Assignment for Day 9
The lure of
immortality
· Excerpt from Gulliver’s Travels
Writing assignment for Tuesday—a concise half page:
· Background: Man is the only creature with sufficient self-knowledge to know that he is mortal. Throughout recorded history have men have dreamed of becoming immortal. Jonathan Swift imagines a world in which some individuals are.
· Task: Think about the lessons or cautions that Swift’s account holds for us in our pursuit of genomically-facilitated medical advancements. What (in your view) is his most important, and why? Please explain.