Bioethics Blog brings up the possibility of a future "obesity vaccine."
I can't help but feel a burning cynicism as I predict the warm acceptance of such a technology: how generous funding from McDonald's will spur its rapid development, how subsidies by the government in light of this "urgent health crisis" will make the vaccine affordable to every low-income child whose parents lack the money to eat anything but fast food, how "vaccine-mobiles" will trek across cities to share the largesse of freedom from flab. "A Modern Miracle!" reads the headlines as nutritionists are shunted back off to the far reaches of food science, their cautions and advice now out of vogue as people celebrate their newfound immunity to prudence.
Meanwhile, a single mother will scrape together her meager finances to give her daughter a chance at a life free of cervical cancer, but $360 is a long way to go, and her pastor says it will promote a sinful life.