Following thirteen months behind my only sibling’s academic footsteps was hard. From elementary school on, she was a glowing student; absorbing, digesting, and understanding information seemingly by osmosis. She maintained straight A’s throughout her academic career and earned a college scholarship. I, on the other hand, struggled to maintain a C average and ran away from home at the age of fifteen.

Let’s take a moment and rewind…

I thought I was stupid. Compared to my sister, it certainly appeared that way. However, it wasn’t until many years later I discovered that I learn differently from how I was being taught.

There are three recognized learning styles:

• Auditory learners grasp things by hearing—the worst type of test for them involves reading passages and writing answers. They’re best at writing responses to lectures they’ve heard, and are also good at oral exams.
• Visual learners comprehend through seeing—the worst test type for them includes having to listen and respond. They’re best at diagramming, reading maps, essays (if they’ve studied using an outline), and showing a process.
• Tactile (kinesthetic) learners understand through experiencing/doing—the worst test type for them usually has lengthy tests and essays. They’re best at short definitions, fill in the blanks, and multiple choice.

When I was in school, the general teaching population were auditory teachers. A heavily tactile learner—with a smidgen of visual thrown in for good measure—I was missing the boat!

Fast forward…

Not having done any planning before running away, I didn’t know that if you leave high school before you graduate, you can’t test for a GED—General Education Diploma—until two years after your graduating class.

Biding my time, I went to work for a large, everything-under-one-roof store. Over the next few years I worked my way up to managing the women’s wear department, then added men’s wear, and topped it off with housewares and furniture.

I gained valuable life experience during that window of time. Part of this seat-of-the-pants wisdom was learning to say, “I don’t understand. Can you please explain that differently?” And that’s when I noticed that no matter how many times someone “told” me, it wasn’t until they “showed” me that I got it! When shown, I not only met, but exceeded what was expected of me.

I left high school as a sophomore in 1973. For four long years I waited and prepared to take the GED examination. On a hot day in late June of 1977, with the cut-grass tang of summer in the air, I slipped into a front row seat at the testing center; one of about twenty other people enveloped in the sterile classroom setting.

The all-day test was given in seven parts: Language Arts (writing), Language Arts (reading), Social Studies, Science, Math (calculator allowed), Math (calculator not allowed), and United States Constitution.

Hours later—head held high with a face-splitting grin—I left the facility with every confidence that I’d aced the test. Six weeks later I received my GED certificate, and that was just the beginning. Over time I earned my associate degree, then bachelor’s, followed by a master’s degree. Finally, two weeks before my fiftieth birthday, I sat and defended my Ph.D. thesis.

Hard-wired for buoyancy and tenacious as a terrier, when I set my mind on something I go after it with tremendous resolve. It took a while, but I eventually went from GED to Ph.D. And while I’m Ph.inisheD with brick-and-mortar academia, I’ll never be done learning.

When you ride a rollercoaster for the first time you feel a surge of emotions that grab, terrify, and haunt you all at once – well, at least at the start. But once you get over that first drop, that first mind bending, gut wrenching drop, you suddenly realize that your life isn’t over. And not only is your life not over, it’s also exciting anticipating what else is around the corner.  When the adrenaline takes over, the fear of the impending disaster dissipates.

That’s what pregnancy was for me. I had the initial fear seeing the digital test flash “pregnant.” That fear wasn’t because it wasn’t planned – technically, we did plan. We got married, bought the nice house in a subdivision, and had a fantastic waiting period of five years so that we could explore married life without kids. The fear was the feeling of “oh no, what have we done?!”

And I wasn’t the only one who felt it! My husband had that look on his face when I showed him the test. He didn’t jump around with joy or even smile; he just looked at me with an expression of confusion and worry that settled somewhere closer to acceptance. You would have thought we were two fifteen year olds still in high school with no life achievements. But what mattered most wasn’t our initial reaction. What mattered was the journey we were embarking on together as husband and wife. The excitement hit us quickly enough, along with the extreme nausea and vomiting that plagued me for months.

My husband always wanted a beautiful baby girl. That was his desire from the start. I don’t have to explain how happy he was when the ultrasound tech told us what we were having. We decided to have a nice small and intimate reveal party, just for the grandparents. We got the idea to get cute pink build-a-bears to give to the prospective grandmothers and we revealed our daughter’s name along with the due date. It was exciting and wonderful.

But life always has a drop waiting around the corner. It never fails: impending doom lurks, waiting for its next victim. It wouldn’t be a journey if it didn’t have obstacles. So that is what I first thought when my OB/GYN called me to come to the office exactly one week after the reveal party. But I could have never prepared myself for the words “positive for Down syndrome.” I kept thinking, how could this be? My husband and I were both still in our twenties and healthy, with no family history of anything more than diabetes. This couldn’t happen to us! I stared at my husband, and he had the look of suffocation, as if the room had been stripped of oxygen. We rushed home to do research, to ease our minds into believing that the prenatal test was inaccurate or wrong. We even grasped at the straw of someone in a lab mixing my blood with someone else’s. Our parents reassured us that it was a faulty test, it happened all the time in the eighties and early nineties. My husband held fast to thoughts of positivity, but I ventured into the realm of realism very early because I knew that life always gives you something that you perceive to be unfair and unbearable. That drop was unbearable.

The twist and turns came in the next few months with the fantastic ultrasound test that showed no signs of Down syndrome at all on our little one. But of course, me being the president of the realm of realistic notions, I couldn’t allow myself to be too relieved. But could anyone really blame me? I mean if my child was to be born with Down syndrome, wouldn’t I, as her mother, need to be there for her? If the doctor pulled her from my womb and the true visualization of her features set in, and she bore obvious signs of that extra chromosome, I would still reach for my child and hold her tighter than a mother bear.

My husband and parents could step out of the room and regain their composures, while going through the stages of grief all the way to acceptance and unconditional love. But me, being momma, I needed to go through that ahead of time, so when my baby girl was handed to me the only thing she would feel was my undying and unwavering love for her.

I did the only thing I could do: I prayed. Not to take away any disabilities or deformities. How could I? How could I be so presumptuous to ask God to make my life any easier than the next person’s? No one has it easy. No, instead I prayed for a healthy beautiful baby girl. And I spent hours telling God “thank you.” I was grateful that I could conceive, and that I had a great husband who also would love our daughter unconditionally. I was thankful for the roof over my head and the qualities that my loving parents instilled in me, because during my pregnancy there was barely a week that went by without hearing about a woman killing or abandoning the baby she didn’t want. I was thankful to have compassion and natural human affection. I spent hours crying and speaking my peace with God, knowing that no matter how different she might be, my daughter was a direct gift from Him and I knew that I only wanted what was best for my child, which is to be better than me. That is what all parents truly want.

When the delivery was over, so was that ride of loops and drops. Because when they handed me my little girl all I saw were her perfections, no flaws. And my husband thanked me for bringing our child into the world. Even now, two years later he still thanks me, and I still thank God because he answered my prayers.

This entire ordeal taught me many lessons about life and our ability to make it harder than it needs to be. Sometimes we ourselves are the disasters we try so hard to avoid. It’s our thinking and our mindset that end up getting the best of us and turning something that can be conquered into a mountain of pain. I learned that you don’t have to be a saint to put trust in a higher power to guide you. I could have allowed the fear of the unknown to destroy me, to cause me to become so paralyzed that I lost my ability to avert a disaster. We all have that ability, regardless of what life sends our way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but also what we perceive as a catastrophe is ultimately left up to our own interpretations.  

Now I am on a new rollercoaster ride. New twists, turns, and drops, each one filled with thoughts of fear and despair. But this ride is called motherhood. Every day I am forced to reset my thinking and my viewpoint on things. I remind myself that it is my choice as to whether something is a mountain or a molehill. Do I choose to wallow in negative thoughts of impending doom or do I look for the way out of the tunnel, the light that is always at the end? Because when I look at my life over the past couple of years, every disaster that has come my way has made my family and me stronger and more versatile. And every blessing that has come our way is received with gratitude and graciousness.

Do I see everything through rose colored glasses now? Not in the least. I was and will always be a realist. Seeing life for what it is will constantly require an endless readjusting of our minds. The truth is, we never truly stop riding the rollercoaster. We can only hope to learn how to enjoy it as much as possible. If we don’t, we are doomed to see every event as something to cower in front of. You don’t get to know when it is coming, and you don’t get to know what it will be, but you do get to choose how it will affect your life: mountain or molehill? I choose to see the twists and turns of my pregnancy as the blessing they always have been. My daughter has no real health issues or problems, no heart defects and no developmental delays. She is healthy and beautiful, with a smile that will bring the world to its knees. All that I truly wanted was for my baby girl to be healthy and smart. She is beyond everything I could have dreamed possible. When I look into her eyes, I am aware that she may have difficult days ahead, but she will have many happy ones, and on her worst day she is still better than I am.

Willpower is considered as one of the four basic elements of what we call the mechanism of conscience. As expressed by Bediuzzaman in a beautiful phrase, willpower is “one’s inclination or his or her practice in the direction of that inclination.” That is, it is a person’s resolution and performance when he or she is in a situation to prefer one of the alternatives they are presented. As a matter of fact, it is nothing more than an insignificant cause that was made a condition although it is not needed in the true sense of the word. And from this premise, it is disqualified from a connection one would seek between the cause and effect according to the principle of causality. It is no different than binding the enlightenment of all the world to a single touch on the button of an electric network, or that the destruction or construction of huge systems to be dependent on a breath of yours.

As clearly observed in the examples, there exists absoutely no association between the cause and effect. Indeed, under normal circumstances, that cause is impossible to bring about that effect. Accordingly, for Bediuzzaman the nature of willpower is relative and secondary, as other scholars of Islamic theology, kalam.

Then, how are we being tested with our willpower?

1. How does it come that such huge effects are reached by such a small entity (an inclination or a practice on that inclination)? A huge pine tree originates from a little seed and a brood comes out of an egg – or, more accurately, a tiny “organism of vitality.” All these are particular manifestations of God’s power or capability. The role our willpower has in effecting the deeds we have been performing, and the results of them – no matter how huge or grand they are – are identical to the role of the seed upon that huge tree, or of the tiny organism upon the brood. All these, in fact, are the indicators of the truth of “God is great.”

2. Whatever the essence of willpower is, we have to rely on it simply because God has built some particular affairs upon it. Indeed, God Almighty has built our future upon our willpower. That is, willpower, in a way, is like a plan or project in terms of our future. Due to this fact, it is important to maintain a balance regarding the true nature of willpower, by assigning no value to it, or by binding everything to its presence. Willpower is a relative entity. As God Almighty has built many things upon will power, we should not be deceived by looking at the smallness of willpower as opposed to the greatness of all the entities that are created and our willpower serves as an instrument to them. How we define our willpower, and thus conceptualize our future and especially our actions is a great test we sit for.

3. Using willpower within the reasonable limitations in the way God points out is also of great importance. If you do not give your willpower its full due, if you do not, or cannot use it properly, or if you do not cherish it by strengthening it – although you have been striving in the name of the values you defend, the probability of your falling into some mistakes will always be in question. To give an example, if you aim to serve your faith and in that direction you want to pour out to the streets, wage armed struggle, or get into political rivalry instead of good services, and fight with all the world, you have failed the test with your willpower. You will have failed because you do not take the template of the good example of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his Age of Happiness; you disregard the circumstances of the age, the human condition, and the effect of willpower in all this.

We should utilize our willpower in the light of rationality and not forsake it to emotional traps; in contrast, we should always seek for means to consolidate our willpower. We should, for instance, unify it with our consciousness so that our heart is employed on behalf of our willpower. Thus, the test will be passed, particularly in matters pertaining to faith, worship, and charity work, for our willpower will be guided by the illuminating lights of divine knowledge.

4. We ought to accomplish the tasks falling upon our shoulders, and in no way interfere with manifestations of God’s Lordship. Yes, this is again a matter of willpower. Indeed, the fact that we apply to perform the deeds God shall actualize, is a matter exceeding our willpower. As another matter of fact, applying for things exceeding our power and abilities may lead us to fall into despair and fail the test, as a result. Bediuzzaman quotes aides of a great king who told him, on the way to battle, “You will win the victory!” The faithful king replied: “I am responsible for fighting against the enemy. To make me win or lose is God’s duty.” Actually, I do not know so well whether calling this a “duty” is right or not. But with Ustad top amongst them, many scholars of kalam have employed this term for God. But still, I prefer to use “manifestations of God’s Lordship.”

At that moment, such a question may come to your minds: “Are we not going to pass this test with our willpower again?” Yes, that is correct. Because of this, willpower should be ceaselessly strengthened. Prayer and appealing for pardon are two factors of vital importance. According to Bediuzzaman, “Asking forgiveness cuts off the root of one’s inclination to evil; prayer enhances one’s inclination to goodness.” Man essentially has been beset by an array of thoughts and by corporeal lust – such as eating, drinking, sleeping, getting up, and all other feelings. Humans are so surrounded by lust, that even just a single step could plunge a person into incredible depths of sin. In fact, to interpret the lust stated in the hadith merely as the attraction one feels for the opposite gender, as some people do, is not true. Here, lust bears a much more general and universal reference. In accordance with such a general and universal comment, gambling, drinking alcohol, and adultery are considered as varying dimensions of lust. If one is trapped by one of these variances of lust, he or she shall probably be hunted by his or her carnal soul, and one day he or she may totally become a slave to it. You see, begging for pardon against all of these shall become a spell cutting off any kind of evil and inclination towards evil.

To clarify a little bit further, we could say that the particular apology that shall cut off the inclination to evil requires a deep repentance for the sins of the past, preservation of the present legitimate path, a particular determined attitude towards the probable sins of the future, and resolution in that determination … Plus, one has to stress this resolution all the time; in other words, one ought to feel and sense his or her orientation towards God in his or her conscience to the fullest degree.

As of the prayer enhancing one’s inclination towards goodness, we may point out some verses from the Qur’an, like: “Your Lord has said: ‘Pray to Me, (and) I will answer you'” (40:60); “And when (O Messenger) My servants ask you about Me, then surely I am near: I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he prays to Me” (2:186).

In other words, God Almighty might mean something like, “my servants shall in no way fall in despair, as I am closer to them than their own carotid is; if they are not able to practice actual prayer, they may do it verbally; if they are still unable, they shall gravitate their hearts to Me; that is, if they are not satisfied with their verbal utterances, they may sail themselves away to the vastness of their consciences and recite something like, ‘O my beloved Lord! I have asked for Your help on that issue with 30–40 sentences. In fact, I am sure that I have not asked for so many things that must actually be asked from You, and that surely Prophets, the Purified souls, saints, the close and the distinguished ones have asked from You. I may have not known them, comprehended them, and asked for them. Now, I am taking all those holy wishes and prayers into consideration, and getting oriented towards You, with all my soul, one more time, touching the handle of Your Door of Mercy, and moaning.'”

Yes, we should keep our zeal as vast as possible, and should not go the door of our Lord as if going to someone lacking wealth or power. In contrast, we should go in with an air that we apply to the Owner of Infinite Wealth whose treasure would not be lessened even though He bestowed us a Paradise every day. Besides, as stated in a verse, “my Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer” (25:77), one of the significant aspects of man is his or her orientation towards God by means of prayer.

Other practices of worship may not be as sincere as a sincere prayer or invocation, since they are open to hidden or apparent showing-off. And still some others may be practiced in a kind of compulsion within the frame of ostensible causes. A sincere prayer, indeed, is like a weapon man falls back on when all the causes in the physical world are exhausted. Causes are never appealed along prayers. In a way, it is closed to hidden or apparent kinds of showing-off. Thanks to prayer, man gets oriented to his or her beloved Lord in a particular place where no one else is present, opens his or her hands, lays him or herself flat for prostration, and keeps begging, and washing his or her prayer rug with tears. You see, it is this prayer said on this line that shall enhance the inclination to goodness; that is, that shall empower one’s will power in terms of doing good. In fact, God’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon Him, begged forgiveness 70 or 100 times a day, according to varying reports. In all the phases of His blessed life, in different times and places, from the moment a rooster crowed to the time of putting on something new, He always prayed for each occasion.

Let us close with a poem by Yunus Emre:

So incapable has the cruel carnal soul made me,
It is unable to be saturated with joys of that world.
Its eyes are blinded by the shirt of unawareness,
It does not notice life is passing away.
O my Lord, how do you call those wearing the shirt of unawareness,
Do you indeed call those yielding to carnal soul as “believers”?
Those keeping earning but spending in vain
Unable to donate even a penny for God’s sake.
O my Lord, alert my eyes from unawareness,
so that I shall not be ashamed in your Divine Dwelling.
Yunus says, do listen to me and do what I say:
Those loving the world cannot find the Hereafter. 

We sit for tests of all sorts throughout our lives, tests in varying scopes and levels of difficulty. Tests to enroll a school, to pass a class, to graduate, the test a son happens to endure with his father or the other way around, and many more tests. An exceptionally difficult and humiliating test is being disqualified, pushed aside, and stripped of civil rights due to one’s humanistic thoughts and lofty ideals.

The most unbearable test, however, is the one that comes with the hands of disloyal friends, particularly when one is already suffering from the words and actions of relentless and merciless foes. Although, regardless of however inhumane and short of dignity a foe may be, his or her enmity can still be reconciled by an antagonistic logic. One may rationalize—using the same logic—that the more differences in thought, worldview, and values increase, so does enmity. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable and irrational when those striving on the same line of fate, those who cherish the same feelings and ideas, betray one another because of jealousy and competition. This is no way reconcilable with human dignity.

Indeed, it hurts—as much as it is worrying—when one ends up with betrayal and pain while expecting faithfulness. What else one can do other than enduring it, as tests of this nature are rampant in a world in which deceit is considered equal to being smart, obsession is equal to to loyalty, and bigotry means conservatism. Yes, as individuals, families, and community as a whole, we have no other option than to endure and say:

A reprimand from Your Majesty
or a favor from Your Grace;
Both are a pleasure for my soul;
How pleasant is Your grace
How pleasant is Your wrath

A community or a nation may have suffered from the greatest and most painful of all tribulations and betrayals from foes, some of who were in the disguise of friends. The entire world might have advanced upon them and brought them under siege from all corners, leading some to a vain belief of their complete annihilation. Yet, they were able to survive all these tests of life-or-death, nullifying all the destructive plans. It is highly probable for similar tests to come up along the way through hills of flames and oceans of blood, all of which will in fact help them with renewal and with metaphysical regeneration. Each of these tests will be a means of awareness for them to identify who is who, for self-empowerment through learning how to recollect and get back on their feet after being knocked down by them. A human being is purified through tests and gets hold of his or her inner essence, thus their life is saved from stagnancy and becomes colorful. Our spirit matures in the face of tests and becomes prepared for bigger challenges, as the bigger the tests and harder the questions are, the more entitled the human is to pass the class and to rise higher in the school of human values and perfection.

Refinement of the individual and empowerment of the society cannot take place without tests. Only souls who have been burdened and pressured by tests can coil like a spring, thrust like an arrow, and reach their target with the blink of an eye. Worries that haunt them all day, hunger and thirst, harm and damage, troubles of all kinds that befell their properties or lives, and being trodden under the metal tracks of unexpected events will all make them as strong as steel and prepare them for the future.

Deadened hearts and raw spirits that have not been tested whatsoever cannot rise to their human potential, nor are they of any use to the community. Distinguishing the diamond-like souls from coal-like ones is only possible by way of testing, at the lack of which gold cannot be distinguished from soil, or diamond from coal. If it was not for testing, the most inauspicious ones would be confused with the highest soaring souls, for it is through testing that angel-like ones can be told apart from the evil souls and ascend to their predestined zeniths.

For those who are appreciative of this truth, each test is one added feather to a wing that will enable him or her to take off to the realms beyond the heavens, and each difficulty faced during a test is an elixir of strength and vigor. For these lofty spirits, being cast into fire is the greatest leap into a friendship with the Creator, and being nailed on the cross is an exalted means of ascension to Him.

For a heart directed towards the highest of ideals, a test is a whip lashed on his or her perseverance, a spell that makes their willpower rear up, and a ray of light that shines on the dial of heart. After each test they crystallize even more, tighten like a bow, and soar high up to the Gardens they already built in their hearts.

Let not the muffled hearts with no refinement to welcome both His reprimand and favor fathom even a grain of this phenomenon; the idealist souls that have devoted themselves to this truth will never recognize anything more pleasant than the pains suffered in this cause. They will never lament and complain to others, even though they burn like a furnace inside. Unfaithfulness of friends and ruthlessness of foes will never take them aback from serving people and their country, for they have given oath as in the words of the poet:

Let the world come at me with all possible reasons for trouble
I am a traitor if I give up any conviction in the service of my nation. (Namık Kemal)

New Jersey-based Helping Hands Relief Foundation (HHRF) is one of those relief organizations that have quickly responded to the call for help from the Horn of Africa. Many volunteers of HHRF have already taken off to Somalia to deliver donations and food to the victims.

The world is undergoing several major tests. The problems caused by economic crises one after another, terrorism, global warming, and others have to be tackled with immediately. But the emergency of the current famine has no comparison, and we have to act now. It is time to delay our own needs today and rush for help to the victims of the famine. This is the greatest test we as the human family have to be pass.

The month of Ramadan is an opportunity to put free will to a test for Muslims across the world. By fasting from dawn to sunset, Muslims do not only stay away from food, they are also expected to attain the most virtuous conduct by being generous in the heart as well as in charity, by shutting off their mind sand tongues to evil thoughts and words, and by appreciating every bit of food and water, the value of which we normally ignore. The Questions and Answers section in this issue focuses on this blessed month with a special emphasis on habitualizing the discipline we become accustomed to during Ramadan.

Ramadan is also a time for realizing the differences among multicultural societies. Many Muslims invite their non-Muslim neighbors to share fast-breaking dinners with them. Trish Madigan, a Dominican sister from Australia, illustrates how much she has learned from Islam in her article on such occasions, and she stresses that there are many issues that both Muslims and Christians can “resonate with” if they step forward to explore each other’s faiths.

Another example of sharing comes from Abdullah Aymaz. In his article, Aymaz recounts an interesting story of Ottoman donations to the Irish people who were desperately suffering due to the Great Hunger in the 1840s. The Ottoman sultan, not daunted by political or logistical obstacles, or the long distance,sent five ships full of food to Ireland. This act of charity is still being commemorated in gratitude by the Irish. This article narrates a great example of a humanitarian service in which no discrimination sullied the feeling of sharing.

This month’s issue also contains remarkable topics from biology, astronomy, and physics. In “Hearing for Deaf Ears” we will learn how the ear functions

and discover a new technology for those who cannot hear: Cochlear Implant (CI) systems. In “What Makes Planets Revolve Around the Sun” we will be presented with interesting data about solar activity, and in “Thoughts on Matter and Anti-Matter” we will be taken on a thought-provoking journey in atom.

We wish you a blissful Ramadan.

The Meaning of Life According to Islam

Said Nursi explains the aim of creation in the following words: “Belief in God is the highest aim of creation and the most sublime result, and humanity’s most exalted rank is knowledge of Him. The most radiant happiness and sweetest bounty for the jinn and humanity is love of God contained within knowledge of God.” In other words, we are created to believe in God. Once a person believes in God they will try to get to know Him and acquire knowledge about Him. This knowledge of God can only be built on a belief in God. This intimate knowledge of God must surely lead to the love of God, which is described as the highest degree of happiness a human being can achieve. A person with a heart that overflows with the love of God will strive to keep his commandments and ex-press this love through worship.

Achieving closeness to God gives life its real meaning. The closest proximity to God can be achieved only in Heaven. While God is closer to us than ourselves, we may put barriers between our conscious and subconscious, and our heart and our Lord. Islam teaches that, from our perspective, doing good and staying away from evil is a means of getting closer to God. Islam teaches that humans are equal in all respects (e.g. race, gender, status, occupation, appearance, etc) except for closeness to God. Every good deed brings a person closer to God, and every evil act takes them further away from God. We can understand this, as there are many ranks or stations in closeness to God. Thus, the test of choosing between good and evil has the purpose of giving people the opportunity to rise through these stations of spirituality.

Islam teaches that angels have fixed stations. They cannot commit sins or descend to lower stations, nor can they achieve a higher station through good deeds. Unlike angels, however, humans can get closer to God and rise through these stations by doing good deeds or descend and get further away from God by committing sins. So, God gives hu-man beings the opportunity to rise to a level beyond the angels or go below the level of Satan; it is all our choice. Without the creation of Satan or evil, there would not be any stations for humans to pass through to get closer to God, and therefore, we would be like angels with fixed stations.

The Concepts of Good and Evil in Islam

As humans, our definitions of good and evil are based on our perceptions and thinking. Human experience, however, is limited in many ways. Many things and events which at first appear to be good may prove in the final outcome to be evil, and vice versa. True knowledge, that is knowledge which is not subject to limitations, is only with God. The Qur’an clearly states that God is the only authority in defining good and evil. Therefore our perceptions of good and evil may be misleading:

. . . but it is possible that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and that you love a thing which is bad for you. But God knows, and you know not. (Baqara 2:216)

The Islamic definitions of good and evil are based on the purposes of creation and the meaning of human life. As mentioned above, the ultimate goal of human life is to become perfected spiritually through belief in God (iman), the knowledge of God (marifatullah), the love of God (muhabbatullah), and the worship of God (ibada). Accordingly, whatever brings a person closer to God and will benefit him in the Next World is good, and whatever takes a person away from God, and thus incurs His anger is evil.

Extrapolating from these definitions, one can see that those things and events that we perceive as evil may in reality be good, if they lead us closer to God. For instance, a disease may be perceived as evil. But a person who goes through the disease with patience grows spiritually and becomes closer to God.

No calamity strikes except by God’s permission. (Taghabun 64:11)

Wealth and health may be perceived as good. But if they lead a person to indulge in worldly desires and forget God, then they become evil for that person.

Have you seen the one who takes his desires as his god? (Furqan 25:43)

The tricks of the devil may be perceived as evil. But they are evil only for those who fall for those tricks and forget God:

Satan got the better of them and caused them to forget God. Those are the party of Satan. Truly the party of Satan are the real losers. (Mujadila 58:19)

On the other hand, through resistance to the devil and through patience in submission to God, one grows spiritually and becomes closer to God. So, for such a person, the existence of the devil and his tricks is a means of spiritual ascension.

…And those who persevere in seeking the pleasure of their Lord, and keep up prayer and spend (benevolently) out of what We have given them secretly and openly and repel evil with good; as for those, they shall have the (happy) issue of the abode. (Rad 13:22)

The following verse from the Qur’an exemplifies good and evil as they relate to the conduct of our lives:

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should believe in God and the last day and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (the emancipation of) the captives, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate; and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in time of conflicts-these are they who are true (to themselves) and these are they who guard (against evil). (Baqara 2:177)

An inclination toward good and a dislike for evil is inherent in every human being. Prophet Muhammad teaches that good is the beautiful personality and beautiful virtues of a person, while evil is what makes one’s heart uncomfortable, unhappy, and is that side of a person that they do not want anyone to know about. Islam teaches that good deeds in this world are like seeds that will be harvested in the Hereafter:

Then shall anyone who has done an atom’s-weight of good, see it! (Zilzal 99:7)

Also the Prophet said: “Save yourself from the Fire, even by giving half a date in charity, and if you do not find (half a date), then by saying a good word.” God is Just. Good will be rewarded sooner or later.

God is never unjust in the least degree: If there is any good (done), He doubles it, and gives from His own presence a great reward. (Nisa 4:40)

The Prophet explained these verses with the following words: “God rewards every single good deed that we do in this life and He is Just. He rewards people both here and in the Hereafter. For the unbelievers, on the other hand, they receive all their rewards here in this life and for them nothing is left for the Hereafter.” The Messenger of God states that all good deeds are important. “Do not underestimate any of them. Even smiling is not an unimportant action.”

Doing good deeds results from an intention and motivation that causes the action, and therein lies its value. A seemingly good action, if done for reasons other then pleasing God, may not be valued by God as a good deed and may not contribute to that person’s rising to the stations of spirituality. Good deeds done without the intention of pleasing God are most likely motivated by one’s ego. Therefore, it can be said that belief in God should be strongly located in the heart of a person when doing good deeds. Only a strong belief in God can guide people toward committing good deeds.

Human beings are not free to choose in many things. We cannot choose to live without eating, we cannot choose to live without drinking, and we cannot choose to live without sleeping. However, we are completely free in one thing: we can choose between good and evil. Life is about options, and decisions, and situations to choose between; good and evil are in front of us as options. We make our decisions, and God creates good and evil based on our decisions. It is inherent in Islam to believe that both good and evil comes from God.

Wherever you are, death will find you out, even if you are in towers built up strong and high! If some good befalls them, they say, ‘This is from God’; but if evil, they say, ‘This is from you’ (O Prophet). Say: ‘All things are from God.’ But what has come to these people that they fail to understand a single fact?” (Nisa 4:78)

God creates both good and evil based on our choices. Once we have made a choice, the action itself is independently created by God. For example, when a person decides to lift his arm, God creates all the necessary action in the muscles for that action to happen. The lifting of the arm might be to help somebody or to harm somebody; that decision is made by the person, and God merely converts the decision to action. We know, or are obliged to know, the consequences of our actions. People know that if they steal and are caught, they go to jail. We cannot blame the authorities for making that person suffer; it was their action that caused them to end up in jail. The authorities merely implement the law which states: if you steal, you go to jail. Similarly, God’s rule is that if you choose evil, it will be given to you; if you choose good, it will be given instead.

People are influenced by a number of forces in making choices. People are naturally inclined to do good. The reflections of God’s beautiful attributes, such as mercy and love, guide people toward good. However, two enemies work constantly against people to force them into evil. These enemies are Satan and one’s ego or carnal self.

Islam teaches that Satan in himself has no power to create. There is no war between Satan and God; this is a Hollywood fantasy. Satan was given a certain amount of time by God after he rebelled, because it is possible for people to make progress and attain higher spiritual stations through resisting his temptations. Satan’s only power is the ability to whisper into people’s souls and try to misguide them. He whispers to prevent people from doing good, or at least to delay it.

The Test in Islam

These are the reasons why this life is viewed as a test in Islam. The test is a struggle of choosing good over Satan and the carnal self. It is not a test to reveal anything to God; He already knows the past and the future. Rather, it is to reveal the outcome to ourselves and to help us grow in the process. Although the details may differ, the concept of the struggle is common in many religions. One important point in this struggle is to stay constantly active in good pursuits. It is easier for Satan and the carnal self to misguide people who are inactive and who are looking for ways to kill time. A believer should not waste time with fruitless actions; rather they should spend their time working for the afterlife and being useful to their fellow human beings. Another means to stop Satan and to nullify the carnal self is to surround oneself with people of belief and have strong relations with a believing community. A lone person is more prone to attacks from Satan and to follow the desires of their carnal self.

The main method in Islam for resisting Satan is prayer and refuge in God. Without God’s permission, Satan cannot cause any harm. A person who takes refuge in God and asks for help from Him with an open heart will be immune to Satan’s evil whispers. We need to maintain our motivation to get closer to God. We need to remember God in every single part of our life, and we need to establish our connection with God through prayer. An examination of Prophet Muhammad’s life shows that he spent a considerable amount of his time in worship and prayer. Published prophetic traditions include various prayers that are intended to guard us against the tricks of the devil.

Conclusion

Good and evil are intricate concepts that are difficult to define without reference to some sound sources. The revealed scriptures, messengers of God and the human inner conscience provide us with the knowledge of good and evil, as well as giving us information on how to attain good and prevent evil. In this article we have indicated various aspects of good and evil as they are described in the main Islamic sources of knowledge, the Qur’an and the prophetic traditions. A clear understanding of good and evil, a conduct of life that is directed toward the achievement of good for all humanity, and “enjoining good and forbidding evil” are the goals of a person of faith.

If you find something hard to grasp, do you immediately conclude that you have reached the limit of your cognitive ability and give up? Do you usually associate successful outcomes with smartness and failures with lack of intelligence? Do you consider intellectual ability an indispensable component of every accomplishment, or it is the effort-plain, sweaty hard work-that brings about the desired outcome?

The above questions tackle the dilemma of effort versus ability. Although it can be relevant to more than one topic and domain, this article will elaborate on the dimension of intelligence. Is intelligence a fixed, innate talent bestowed by heredity? Is it an accumulated, cognitive reservoir constructed through such personal factors as effort and motivation, and such environmental factors as held in common by family and community members?

A Historical View

The effort/ability dilemma has been very controversial in the West. It has not been a mere academic debate, but one with political and social implications and a very eager public interest. The publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) had a major impact on biology and other fields.

Francis Galton, a cousin of Darwin, advocated applying Darwinian principles to human society and coined the term eugenics, from the Greek words of “good in birth.” In his Hereditary Genius (1869),(1) he argued that mental features are as hereditary as physical features, and that a selective breeding of human beings (similar to horse breeding) could raise the proportion of people with a better-than-average genetic endowment. This new approach helped Darwin extend his evolution theory in The Descent of Man (1871).(2)

Galton believed that intelligence and ability are fixed, innate, and determined by heredity. This idea is proven by accomplishments in competitive careers.(3) He proposed the encouragement of good marriages as a way to create a superior human race, not so much as a way of “unwanted” ones. Gregor Mendel’s work on genetically transmitted dominant and recessive traits increased interest in eugenics.

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed an overwhelming belief in eugenics in academia and among intellectuals, politicians, and businessmen.(4) It became “an established fact” that single-unit genes determined such traits as alcoholism and mental incompetence.

Such conclusions naturally had political and social implications. For example, beginning in 1911, the United States tested arriving immigrants to assess their “worthiness.” Since many of those tested did not speak English and had just endured a long and difficult sea voyage, scores were low, and particularly lower for certain ethnic groups.(5) As a result, the US Congress passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which enforced quotas for unfit ethnic groups. Many American states also passed laws mandating sterilization of inmates judged to be genetically inferior.(6)

The fiercest implementation of eugenics happened in Nazi Germany. The 1933 Eugenic Sterilization Law required compulsory sterilization of all German citizens deemed to be suffering from presumably hereditary defects, including offensive physical deformities. Sterilization of the unfit was later transformed into many of the war crimes committed during World War II.

Eugenics’ association with World War II era war crimes and genocide ruined its popularity and reputation. However, some parts of its principles are still considered valid by some scientists in various fields. Two examples are the nature and causes of difference in human intelligence, and whether intelligence is hereditary or not. In other words, people are not identical to each other in the areas of comprehending complicated material, reasoning, learning, and solving problems. Researchers do not agree on the sources of these differences, and hence ask: “Is there a general mental ability called ‘intelligence’ that causes these differences, or is the underlying cause something else?”

Theories about Intelligence

Presented below are some contemporary theories about intelligence and its determinants.

The Psychometric View: This view claims that individual differences in human cognition or mental ability can be measured adequately by intelligence tests.(7) Many widely used tests seek to measure some closely related criteria, such as scholastic aptitude and academic success-not intelligence itself. Examples of such tests in the Unites States are the SAT or ACT (college admission), GRE (graduate school), and GMAT (graduate business school) exams. Although test administrators try to distance themselves from testing one’s actual intelligence (namely, one’s I.Q.), it is generally accepted by the research community that one’s IQ and the above tests are closely related.(8)

IQ tests are offered in many verbal and non-verbal forms. The general practice for IQ scores is to scale them around 100 in such a way that 95 percent of the population falls between 70 and 130.

Psychometricians assert that people are born with unequal intellectual potentials, just as they are born with different physical potentials, such as height and eye color. They also state that no amount of social engineering can make individuals with different mental competences into intellectual equals.(9)

One American social engineering program is Affirmative Action. This program encourages underrepresented minority groups in society to pursue education and business through required quotas. For example, state universities are required to accept a certain percentage of minority freshmen. If the psychometric view is true, these programs will fail and amount to discrimination against the capable. In their controversial book, Hernstein and Murray maintained this view together with the heredity of intelligence and genetic IQ differences between races.(10)

In short, this view states that a single factor known as “intelligence” can be measured with IQ tests and predict success in life.

The Cognitive-Psychology View: Adherents of this theory view intelligence as a process, not an innate ability. The process consists of creating a mental representation of problems encountered, retrieving apparently related information, and devising a solution. In short, it emphasizes experience for success in life, but does not completely eliminate the relation between general intelligence and experience.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory: In his Frames of Mind, Gardner argues that psychometric tests ignore several aspects of intelligence. He also claims that the tests’ paper-and-pencil format rule out many kinds of intelligence performances that are important for success in life.

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory: This view asserts three dimensions of intelligence: Analytic intelligence (similar to the psychometric, IQ-based view); creative intelligence (involves insight, synthesis, and intuition); and practical intelligence (the ability to grasp, understand, and solve real-life problems).(11) Although Sternberg does not reject some heredity in intelligence, he strongly believes that all three aspects of intelligence can be developed.

Problems with the Psychometric View

The psychometric view claims that intelligence is the single best predictor for individual performance at school and on the job, as well as for chances of divorce, dropping out of school, unemployment, or having illegitimate children.(12) However, the interactions and correlations of various factors in social studies make it very difficult to draw such conclusions. One cannot know for sure if intelligence is the cause or the result of the above-mentioned factors. It may very well be the case that some other criteria contribute to both the outcomes outlined above, and to the high scores as measured by IQ tests. Here are some remarks on the psychometric view of intelligence and its relation to success in life:

• Many people with high IQ scores fail to become successful due to a lack of motivation, personality, laziness, or short attention span. In contrast, some people with low IQ results succeed due to personal dedication, vision, systematic effort, and motivation. A low IQ score can be changed through conscious choice and effort. As an analogy, consider a gifted athlete. Some athletes have special talents for a particular sport. However, they fail to perform as well as those without those talents, for the latter depend on systematic effort. Readers familiar with sports can name several specific examples of this phenomenon. • An IQ test may be a speed issue. That is, it may measure only how quickly people learn or solve complex problems. It is a well-known fact that once something is learned, the performance of a person with a lower IQ is not significantly different from that of a person with a higher IQ.

• A certain amount of intelligence seems to be needed to gain entry into an intellectually demanding field. However, beyond that point, success is determined by the effort put into the job, social support, and experience.

• Average IQ test scores have been increasing in the West for several decades. However, school performance has remained almost constant, if they did not actually decrease. This clearly indicates that success in life is not directly related to IQ scores.

• People can improve their test scores by becoming familiar with the test. This implies that expending the necessary effort can affect the outcome.

• Cultural and family environments (e.g., beliefs, oppression, poverty, fear, and lack of health care) together with such biological factors as nutrition and exposure to toxic substances (e.g., alcohol), affect IQ scores. Flynn analyzed Asian Americans’ IQ test scores and found that they were always around 97 or 98. However, their academic and professional achievements were remarkable; equivalent in achievement to people with IQ scores of over 120! This can be attributed to a cultural belief in learning, as summarized in Gorner.(13) According to Claxton, Western cultures focus on ability as the major determinant of success. If you fail, it is probably because you were not smart enough. Asian cultures, however, emphasize effort and generally consider failure the result of a lack of effort.

• A common error is to assume that something heritable is unchangeable. Infants adopted into advantaged families tend to have higher IQs in childhood than would have been expected, had they been raised by their birth parents.(14) This is further proof that how a child is raised and what he or she is exposed to have very long-lasting effects. Further, and individual’s personal choice has considerably more impact on one’s life than usually thought. A recent initiative at the University of Chicago, the RealAge Program led by Michael F. Roizen, stresses the importance of an individual’s choice on how long and how well they will live. He claims that 70 percent of this is determined by one’s personal choice.(15) So even if heritability is high, intervention is possible.

• Some claim that IQ tests measure nothing more than cultural conditioning, education, and language fluency. As these are not inherited in the same way as eye color and other physical factors, they can be modified.

Conclusion

Considering the above remarks, it is very difficult to conclude that intelligence can in any way be a fixed, innate ability that determines success in life. If the very few exceptionally gifted and mentally retarded people are left out, most people have an almost equal potential for success in life. Men and women were created for the purpose of learning. This lifelong learning process and its outcome are closely tied with the effort expended. Anybody can become better at anything, provided that they strive for it with the means available to them. Encountering difficulties should not prevent people from trying harder. Learning to learn is possible, and depends upon the willingness to stay engaged when faced with uncertainty. Without rejecting the effect of genetic factors, we can have a significant effect on our own well-being and success in life through conscious choice and effort.

Footnotes

1. Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius, reprint (Peter Smith Pub., 1990).
2. Encyclopedia Britannica, “Sir Galton Francis.”
3. Leslie Jones, “Social Darwinism Revisited,” History Today (August 1998).
4. Paul Gray, “Cursed by Eugenics,” Time, 11 January 1999.
5. Rawat Rajiv, “The Return of Determinism,” Cornell Science and Technology Magazine (summer 1995).
6. Sterilization is defined by American Heritage dictionary as follows: “To deprive (a person or an animal) of the ability to produce offspring, as by removing the reproductive organs.”
7. Earl Hunt “The Role of Intelligence in Modern Society,”American Scientist (July-August 1995); Report of a Task Force established by the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7 August 1995.
8. For historical reasons, intelligence tests are termed IQ, which stands for “Intelligence Quotient.”
9. Linda S Gottfredson, “The General Intelligence Factor,” Scientific American, (November 1998).
10. Richard Hernstein, and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (Simon & Schuster, 1995).
11. Frank Miele, “Interview with Robert Sternberg on The-Bell Curve book”, Skeptic Magazine, 3, no. 3 (1995).
12. Guy Claxton, “Wise Up,” Bloomsbury (September 1999), 26.
13. Peter Gorner, “Interview with Dr. Richard F. Roizen,” Chicago Tribune (Perspective section), 28 November 1999.
14. Report of a Task Force established by the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7 August 1995.
15. Gorner, “Interview.”

There are many reasons why a developing baby may have congenital problems (Moore, 1989, p.lO8). Exposure to infections and certain drugs (most commonly, alcohol), chromosomal abnormalities and inherited congenital conditions have all been shown to disrupt normal fetal development. In this article we will concentrate on the diagnosis of chromosomal and genetic disorders during pregnancy.

PNT procedures and their interpretation can be extremely intimidating for parents. It is therefore important that tests are done only after a full explanation of the procedures involved and their possible consequences. The aim of PNT is to inform and prepare parents for the birth of an affected infant, so that they can choose between the possible courses of action (Aksoy, 1996). The possibilities will include: (1) in utero treatment; (2) delivery at a special centre for immediate postnatal treatment; and 3) termination of an affected fetus, i.e. abortion.

Over the years, professional standards and laws have evolved which influence the clinical application of PNT and help to tackle many of the complex ethical issues involved. There is little doubt that relatively non-invasive techniques whose primary purpose is to diagnose treatable disorders and then treat them, before or after birth, would be warmly welcomed by all, especially the parents. The fact is, however, that in practice PNT is generally being used to diagnose abnormality and then terminate the life of the unborn babies. The reality is that prenatal diagnosis rarely leads to fetal therapy

In what follows, we will try to explain the range of prenatal tests available and indications for their appropriate use. We will consider some of the technological advances on the horizon in this field of medicine, as well as some of the ethical dilemmas that arise.

Prenatal Diagnostic Tests

Prenatal diagnostic tests can be divided into two types, invasive and non-invasive. Non-invasive tests simply involve a blood sample taken from the pregnant woman or an ultrasound scan. Invasive tests on the other hand are more complicated and involve obtaining a sample of cells or tissue from the developing foetus, either by amniocentesis or chorionic villus biopsy. The samples obtained by invasive tests can be used, specifically to assess the fetal chromosome pattern, to determine if the fetus has a particular genetic mutation, or for a whole range of biochemical assays.

Maternal Blood Sampling. Between 15 and 19 weeks of pregnancy, the pregnant woman attending ante-natal clinic will be offered a blood test. The blood sample will be analysed to assess the level of three proteins, b human chorionic gonadotropin (b HCG), oestriol and a -fetoprotein (a FR). The three levels in combination with the mother’s age can be used to estimate the risk of the baby being affected by a chromosomal problem, especially Down’s syndrome (Wald and Cuckle, 1992, pS63). If the test result indicates a high level of risk, the mother will be offered further tests to assess the status of her baby.

Ultrasound Scan. Ultrasound uses high frequency waves to form a picture as the waves are reflected back by tissues of different density. The developing fetus grows in a liquid filled sac (amnion). As fluid shows black on the scan, this provides a good contrast with the fetal parts allowing high resolution images. Early in the first trimester an ultrasound scan can be used assess the viability of a fetus and to estimate its stage of development. Most women will be offered a formal high resolution scan at between 16 and 19 weeks (Sutton, 1990, pp.20- 1). The images from the scan will be the first time the expectant mothers see the baby. For many, this is a happy event; for the others it could be a very sad event if the scan indicates an abnormality.

Amniocentesis. In this test, done between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy (Cohen, 1990, pp.19- 20), a very fine needle is passed through the abdomen under ultrasound guidance, avoiding the fetus, and a sample of amniotic fluid containing fetal cells is withdrawn. The sample is cultured to grow more cells so that the chromosome pattern of the cells can be examined or DNA extracted for genetic analysis. This process can take three weeks, a period of considerable anxiety for the parents. There is also a small risk of miscarriage occurring after an amniocentesis.

Chorionic Villus Sampling. In this test, done in the same way as than amniocentesis but five weeks earlier, a sample of tissue is taken from the developing placental tissue. Both chromosomal and genetic analysis can be performed on this tissue, and the results are available quicker and at an earlier stage of the pregnancy than with amniocentesis. However, there is a higher miscarriage rate following chorionic villus sampling than amniocentesis (Boss, 1994).

Fetal Blood Sampling. Occasionally, when there is concern that a pregnant woman has been exposed to an infection early in her pregnancy, a sample of blood will be taken from the umbilical cord with a very fine needle under ultrasound guidance. This sample is used to assess if the fetus has become infected and at high risk of development problems following the maternal exposure.

New Advances

Advances in prenatal diagnosis have followed rapidly from technological improvements in ultrasound equipment, refinement and experience of current techniques, and the development of new tests. The aim of research in this area is to provide the earliest possible accurate information about the health of the developing baby, and to do so in the way safest for the expectant mothers and their babies. If the information is reassuring, the couple can enjoy the remainder of the pregnancy in the knowledge that everything will progress normally. However, if the result are unfavourable and an abnormality is diagnosed, earlier decisions about potential treatment or termination are possible and so may be less traumatic for those involved.

Fluorescent in situ Hybridisation (FISH). FISH is a technique which uses a specific DNA sequence as a probe to recognise its complementary sequence on a chromosome. The probe has a fluorescent tag attached which lights up when it is attached to the recognised chromosome segment. Recently FISH has been applied to analysis of amniocentesis samples to assess if an extra chromosome 21 is present or not in the cells. Because the amniocentesis cells do not require culturing for this technique the test results can potentially be available sooner than following standard amniocentesis.

Fetal Blood Cells in the Maternal Circulation. At about 6 weeks fetal blood cells can be found in a blood sample taken from a pregnant woman. These cells exists in very small numbers. Recent work has extracted and purified these cells to allow assessment of the fetal chromosome pattern and to determine if the fetus has a specific genetic mutation. Although this technique is very new it has the potential to make the currently used invasive techniques obsolete and will allow very early diagnosis.

Preimplantation Diagnosis. This procedure involves the use of technology developed with in vitro fertilisation (IVF). An oocyte is removed from the woman and brought into contact with spermatozoa from her partner under controlled conditions. One of the spermatozoa effects fertilisation to form a zygote. Following three stages of cell division (this eight-cell stage is termed, the blastocyst), one cell can be removed and used for analysis (Aksoy, 1997a). The DNA sequence of this cell can be determined to identify the presence or absence of a gene mutation that has caused illness in one of the parents. If the cell does not contain the mutation, the blastocyst can be implanted in the womans uterus (womb) to develop into a fetus which is unaffected by the condition that has affected other family members.

Human Genome Project. The aim of the Human Genome Project is to have identified the entire human DNA sequence (genome) by 2005. The extra information generated about specific genes and their association with specific disorders has the potential to expand dramatically the number of genetic tests available to couples with a family history of a genetic condition.

Ethical Issues

It is important to understand the purpose of prenatal diagnosis. It is done to provide parents with information about the health and development of their baby, not to provide them with a reason to have a termination of pregnancy. There are 180,000 terminations performed each year in the United Kingdom, of these 5000 are because of fetal abnormalities diagnosed by prenatal tests. Abortion is a serious problem itself in all regions of the world, developed and developing, and we discussed it in an earlier issue of this magazine (Aksoy 1997b). When prenatal tests reveal that a baby has health problems, parents face a number of difficult questions. Is any treatment available? What are the baby’s chances of survival? What would be the baby’s quality of life if he or she did survive? Some illnesses can be treated during pregnancy and after delivery. One of the main aims of fetal medicine is to develop therapies to treat fetuses and improve the survival. However, some conditions are fatal despite all treatment. In these circumstances couples sometimes take the extremely difficult decision to have a termination of pregnancy

For religious, moral or other reasons many couples opt not to have any tests performed during pregnancy. They feel that even if the results of any test indicated that their baby was affected by a serious condition they should and would continue with the pregnancy. It is important in each situation that the parents’ decisions are respected and supported. The parents need to be given appropriate guidance and counselling rather than be met with disapproval.

In some countries prenatal testing has been extensively used to determine the sex of the baby at an early stage, with the intention of ensuring that only male babies are born (Kusum, 1993). In the United Kingdom, as in many other places, prenatal diagnosis to determine fetal sex is deemed morally unacceptable. It is important that new advances in medicine are paralleled by an informed ethical debate. Prenatal tests should reflect what is appropriate within a society rather than just allowing what is technically feasible. A number of regulatory groups have been formed, including the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), to monitor and regulate new advances in this area.

In sum: prenatal diagnosis is a rapidly expanding area of medicine. New techniques are constantly being developed which are aimed at allowing earlier diagnosis, less invasive methods and, ultimately, treatment. It is important that developments are monitored and regulated to ensure that the techniques available are applied within an ethical framework.

REFERENCES

Aksoy, S. (1996) ‘Prenatal Testing: An Ethical Perspective’, The New Journal of Medicine, 13:2, pp.12-14.

Aksoy, S. (1997) ‘Moral Controversies on Preimplantation Genetic Testing’, paper presented at UNESCO Asian Bioetlncs Conference, Kobc-Japan, November 1997.

Aksoy, S. (1997), ‘Abortion: Mercy or Murder?’, The Fountain, 2:17 pp.32-5.

Atkins, A.F.J. and Hey, EN. (1991) ‘The Northern Regional Fetal Abnormality Survey’, in Drife, jO. and Donnai, D.(cds) Antenatal Diagnosis of Fetal Abnormalities, Springer-Verlag Ltd., London.

Boss, J.A. (1994) ‘First Trimester Prenatal Diagnosis: Earlier is not Necessarily Better’, JME, 20 pp.l46-5l. )

Cohen, L.G. (1990 Before Theýr Týme at Risk, American Association on Mental Retardation, Washington DC.

Kusum (1993) ‘The Use of Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques for Sex Selection: The Indian Scene’, Bioethics, 7: 2/3 pp,149-65.

Moore, K.L. (1989) Before We Are Born: Basic Embryology and Birth Defects, WB. Saunders Comp., Philadelphia.

Sutton, A. (1990) Prenatal Diagnosis: Confronting the Ethical Issues, The Linacre Centre, London.

Wald, NJ. and Cuckle, H.S. (1992) ‘Biochemical Screening’, in Brock, D.J.H., Rodeck, C.H. and Ferguson-Smith, MA.(eds) Prenatal Diagnosis and Screening, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.

At the end of the 1950s, Richard Feynman (1961, pp.282-96) described the possibility of building computers that were ‘sub-microscopic’. More recently, several people have advocated the realization of massively parallel computation using the techniques and chemistry of molecular biology.

At the end of 1994 Leonard Adleman published a paper on ‘Molecular Computation of Solutions of Combinatorial Problems’ (Science, vol.266, pp.1021 – 24). He explained how a problem could be set up by synthesizing DNA molecules with a particular sequence, and solved by letting the DNA molecules react in a test tube, producing a molecule whose sequence is the answer. In the same paper he recounted how he had put this theory into practice by solving a standard problem with a DNA reaction system. Adleman called his DNA computer the TT-100, for test tube filled with 100 microlitres of fluid, which is all it took for the reactions to occur.

Since then, many advances have been proposed to refine the protocol for programming a DNA computer to reduce the complexity of the operations and eliminate errors (see Lipton, n.d.; and Boneh and Lipton, nd.). Despite their respective complexities, biological and mathematical operations have some similarities:

The very complex structure of a living being is the result of applying simple operations to initial information encoded in a DNA sequence.

The result f(w) of applying a computable function to an argument can be obtained by applying a combination of basic simple functions to w.

For the same reasons that DNA was probably selected for living organisms as a genetic material, its stability and predictability in reactions, DNA strings can also be used to encode information for mathematical systems.

Conventional computers represent information in terms of 0’s and l’s, physically expressed in terms of the flow of electrons through logical circuits. Builders of DNA computers represent information in terms of the chemical units of DNA. Calculating with an ordinary computer is done with a program that instructs electrons to travel on particular paths; with a DNA computer, calculation requires synthesizing particular sequences of DNA and letting them react in a test tube. In a scheme devised by Lipton (n.d.), the logical command AND is performed by separating DNA strands according to their sequences, and the command OR is done by pouring together DNA solutions containing specific sequences.

‘It will fill a bathtub, not the universe,’ says Lipton, ‘and it will be incredibly cheap to build.’ A pound of DNA in 1,000 quarts of fluid, about three-feet square, will hold more memory than all the computers ever made. The chemicals are inexpensive; DNA runs virtually on its own power, and the soup, with a little splicing, can be re-used from one experiment to the next. Lipton estimates that a superparallel DNA computer, offering trillions of processors working simultaneously, could be built for $100,000.

The fastest supercomputers can currently perform 1000 million instructions per second (MIPS); a single DNA molecule requires approximately 1000 seconds to perform an instruction (.001 MIPS). Obviously, if you want to perform one calculation at a time (serial logic), DNA computers are not a viable option. However, if one wanted to perform many calculations simultaneously (parallel logic), a computer such as the one described above can easily perform 1014 MIPS. DNA computers also require less energy and space. While existing supercomputers operate 109 operations per joule, a DNA computer could perform 2 x 1019 operations per joule (many times more efficient). Data can be stored on DNA at a density of approximately 1 bit per cubic nm, while existing storage media require 1012 cubic nm to store 1 bit (Adleman, 1995).

Thus, the potential of molecular computation is impressive. However, it is too early for either great optimism or great pessimism. It is possible that DNA computers will become more common for solving very complex problems and DNA computers may also become automated. In addition to the direct benefits of using DNA computers for performing complex computations, some of the operations of DNA computers already have (Adleman, 1995), and more could be, used in molecular and biochemical research.

References

• Adleman,L.(1994).’Moleculer computation of solutions to combinatorial problems’,Science,vol.266,pp.1021-24.
• Adleman,L.(1995 ‘On constructing a moleculer computer’:ftp://usc.edu/pub/csinfo/papers/adleman/molecular_coputer.ps
• Boneh,D.&Lipton,R.J.’Making DNA computers error resitant’.(Unpublished manuscript.)
• Feynman,R.P. (1961)’Minaturization’,in D.H.Gilbert (ed.)Reinhold,New York.
• Lipton,R.J.(n.d.)’Speeding up computations via molecular biology’:ftp://ftp.cs.princeton.edu/pub/people/rjl/bio.ps