Independent Reading Reaction #5

               After I finished reading Double Helix I found that my prediction from the previous post, that Dr. Wyatt had used another one of Eli’s mother’s eggs without permission, was true to a degree. As I continued to read I found out that in exchange for Dr. Wyatt’s assistance with Eli, his mother gave Dr. Wyatt her remaining eggs that had been collected. This is what angered Eli’s father, and for a good reason. Dr. Wyatt was experimenting on human embryos; trying to create stronger, smarter, better looking people. He had already done this with four toddlers and one baby.

               With this research he could potentially eliminate diseases like MS, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Down’s syndrome. This research raises many ethical questions. I think that eradicating these diseases sounds like a great idea at first; however if one was to look at this from the perspective of a person with Down’s syndrome, for example, there are a number of arguments one could make against the research. People with Down’s syndrome don’t cause other people any harm, they are content with the jobs that many other people would not be happy with, and they don’t steal or cause trouble in society. The research that is talked about in this book could be wonderful in a myriad of ways, but at the same time it could easily get out of hand. I don’t feel that anyone should be able to possess the power to decide who is unfit to be born. I do believe that using gene therapy to treat existing medical conditions in people is a great advancement in medicine; but I don’t believe that people should ever cross the line and begin to decide who has the right to live and who does not.

Independent Reading Reaction #4

As I’ve continued to read Double Helix by Nancy Werlin, I’ve found out that some of my earlier predictions were true. In the process of finding these predictions to be true, Eli’s mother passed away because of her Huntington’s disease and Eli’s father has started to open up to him more. After Eli’s mother died, his father and him had to sort through his mother’s things. While doing so Eli’s father showed him an old photo of Eli’s mother when she was eighteen. Immediately when Eli looked at the photo he saw that his mother looked just like Kayla. Eli knows that this can’t be a coincidence and because his father won’t explain things to him, he goes to talk to Dr. Wyatt. On his way to see Dr. Wyatt Eli remembers a time when he was seven, which he now realizes was when his parents found out that he is negative for HD.

               When Eli goes to meet with Dr. Wyatt he brings the old photo of his mother. He is hoping that Dr. Wyatt will be able to explain why she looks like Kayla, how he became HD negative, and why his father dislikes Dr. Wyatt. Eli finds out, just as I thought, that he was genetically altered. Dr. Wyatt took a number of eggs from his mother in order to find HD negative ones. Then Dr. Wyatt would fertilize one and implant it in Eli’s mother. This is why Eli is negative for Huntington’s. Eli hasn’t yet figured out how or why Kayla looks so much like his mother. However, I have a feeling that Dr. Wyatt used another egg he collected, fertilized it, and implanted it into someone without Eli’s parent’s permission. I believe that this “other” egg could be the reason Kayla resembles Eli’s mother, and why Eli’s father is mad at Dr. Wyatt.

Independent Reading Reaction #3

 Recently in my book, Double Helix, Dr. Wyatt invited Eli over to his house for lunch one day. When Eli showed up he was introduced to a beautiful, smart, athletic girl named Kayla. She catches Eli's attention immediately and the three of them spend hours talking. Eli even misses the date with his girlfriend he has been planning all week. Eli describes this incident as unintended; he was just so intrigued by the conversation with Dr. Wyatt and Kayla that he lost track of time.
     I am starting to believe that this interest in Kayla is much more meaningful than her just being an attractive girl. I feel that Dr. Wyatt intentionally introduced the two of them at lunch. If I were to look at this meal from the perspective of How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster, then I would say that because this meal was a success Eli has begun to find more peace of mind in his life. This holds true in the next few chapters as Eli starts to fix things with his father and accept his mother's illness.
     I also think that Eli's introduction to Kayla was significant because I have noticed that the two of them have a great deal of things in common. Both of them are smart, athletic, good looking, tall, and skinny. When Eli first saw Kayla he said he felt "the eeriest sense of familiarity from her...” All of these details, the fact that Dr. Wyatt is so interested in both of them, and that Dr. Wyatt knows Eli and Kayla's families so well makes me think that Eli and Kayla could be related and not know it. I have been leaning towards the idea that the two of them are an experiment of Dr. Wyatt's; and now I think that Dr. Wyatt separated a pair of twins, Kayla and Eli, at birth. I'm not sure whether or not he genetically altered Eli and Kayla; however I do have a very strong feeling that Dr. Wyatt had them meet on purpose.