Should the cost of treatment for a genetic disorder be an important consideration for insurance companies when
deciding whether or not to cover the treatment? Justify your reasoning. What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER: Answers will vary. One argument may be that insurance companies have to make decisions
based on the best use of their available resources and that it would not be ethical, for
example, to spend $1,000,000 a year for any one patient’s treatment when it might be
possible to help hundreds or thousands of people with that same money.
Alternatively, one could argue that a dollar value cannot be placed on life. The cost of
treatment for a person should not, in any way, come down to money. The purpose of medical
insurance is to take care of people, no matter what the cost. By accepting premium payments
from their clients, insurance companies are agreeing to cover the patient and that it should not
matter how much that treatment costs.
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Parasitoid wasps are sometimes involved in a plant's defensive response. In what way are the wasps helpful to the plant?
A. The wasps respond to a chemical the plant gives off when wounded, and the wasps lay their eggs on the caterpillar that wounded the plant. B. The wasps live in hollow thorns of the plants, and attack the plants' predators. C. The wasps stimulate the production of alkaloids the plants use for defense. D. The wasps enhance the plants' hypersensitive response. E. The wasps trigger leaf abscission so that herbivores do not have anything to eat.
Hematocrit makes up approximately ____ percent of the total blood volume
a. 10 b. 25 c. 45 d. 50 e. 70
______, independent circular DNA fragments, are essential to the process of molecular cloning.
a. Plasmids b. Restriction enzymes c. DNA polymerase d. Recombinant DNA
A massive immigration of Irish to the United States in the mid-19th century because of a failure of the Irish potato crop was most likely caused by what protist?
A. Phytophora infestans B. Giardia lamblia C. Trichomonas vaginalis D. Plasmodiuim falciparum E. Pfiesteria shumwayae