Embryonic Stem-cell Research - A True Faustian Bargain
In the debate over whether the federal government should fund embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR), our country is being offered a true Faustian bargain. In return for a hoped-for potential - it is no more than that - of deriving desperately desired medical breakthroughs in the treatment of such afflictions as Parkinson's disease, paraplegia, and diabetes, we are being asked to give the nation's imprimatur to reducing human life into a mere natural resource to be exploited and commodified.
Given the stakes, our lawmakers owe it to their country to take the time to thoroughly understand the issue before speaking in public and taking sides. Unfortunately, some senator's statements in favor of embryonic research exhibited stunning ignorance regarding the subject about which they opined. Making matters worse, the press quickly leaped upon the statements of these pro-life senators as proof that embryonic research is moral, ethical, and scientifically justified, when the reverse is actually true.
Senator Hatch's attempt to explain his pro ESCR funding position to Chris Matthews on Hardball on June 20, demonstrated that he doesn't know an embryo from a stem cell. Take the following statements:
* "After a long period of study and prayer, I found that pluripotent cells are not full human beings but can be very, very beneficial as used by science to help with all kinds of maladies...."
* "It is appropriate to use pluripotent cells but inappropriate to use totipotent cells because a pluripotent cell cannot be made into a full human being. A totipotent cell can actually be replicated into a human being through even cloning." (Totipotent cells are the first to appear after fertilization and can actually develop into a completely new embryo - as occurs during identical twinning. Pluripotent [stem] cells appear a bit later. They are "undifferentiated cells" that can develop into any body part - which is why researchers wish to study them.)
* "Life begins in the mother's womb, not in a refrigerator."(Embryonic)
In stating that the feds should fund the study of pluripotent cells but not totipotent cells, Senator Hatch confused several essential points. First, pluripotent cells and totipotent cells are not the same thing as the embryo itself. Rather, these cells are constituent parts of the embryonic whole just as vital organs are parts of born persons.
Are embryonic stem cells the cure to many of the human body’s ailments, including defective organs and crippling diseases, or is their use a blatant disregard of human rights and the value of life? Thanks to the rapid advancements in this field, the potential benefits of stem cells are slowly becoming reality. However, embryonic stem cell research is an extremely divisive topic in the United States thanks to the ethical issues surrounding terminating embryos to harvest the stem cells. In response to this debate, Congress passed the Dickey-Wicker amendment in 1995 to prohibit federal funding of research that involved the destruction of embryos. President Bush affirmed this decision, but more recently President Obama lifted many of these restrictions. Despite the significant portion of Americans that do not support embryonic stem cell research, it should be federally funded because of the potential health benefits, the definition of human, and the opportunity to clearly define regulations for ethical research.
rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. Truth gave her speech against the wishes of the convention's participants, and as a result captivated her audience with a powerful narrative that would flourish in African American history. After gaining her freedom, she changed her name from Isabella, to Sojourner Truth as representation of the new person she had become. She vowed to preach the "Truth" as God revealed it. Her powerful oration drew people into her speeches, and she challenged her listeners to live up to the ideals they claimed to embrace.
Opposing Viewpoints offers unbiased opinions on the future of embryonic research as well as how they have currently been used to cure many diseases. In addition, the article specifies how developing ethical standards to ensure that the use of embryos remains moral, allows for science to remain ethical. Many of the topics mentioned in this viewpoint consider bioethics and remain consistent throughout. Essentially, the purpose of this article was to establish a middle ground between ethics and science.
...onjointly, Dante’s strategically used imagery shows the horrors are merely the hidden sins committed on Earth and that caused them to be punished in Hell to their sins’ equal severity. The crowning jewel of Dante’s illustrative text was the pilgrim’s development from a pure human being to one filled with evil and hatred after seeing Hell’s truths and how he changed negatively from his exposure. These clues left by Dante display show the reader the precise reason why the Church is debauched and how it affected its misguided people.
Truth was born into slavery and raised in New York by her mother, Betsey and father, James. As mentioned earlier, her name was changed once she became free in 1826, to signify her wanting to travel and become a preacher. With her testimonies of “demeaning nature of slavery and the redeeming power of faith,” her words touched numerous listeners and jumpstarted her mission from God . Sojourner’s name was a symbol of justice to show the world the “truth” behind what was really going on in the nation. However, she was illiterate; but it proved not to be a stumbling block for her courageous acts to come. She became a “national figure in the struggle for the liberation of both blacks and women,” by attending countless tours spreading the word of inequality and injustice. One of her first and most successful attempts at black equality was the approval of African Americans to enter into the Union Army to fight. Her act of...
Both these debates have a background question at hand, whether or not the speakers were presenting their opinions out of honest opinion for the well-being of Athens or self-interest. Out of the four speakers two (Nicias and Diodotus) honestly cared for the future of Athens and did not act on the slightest bit for their self-interest. Cleon also cared about the well-being of Athens but merely gave out the immoral and haste answer to a problem that obviously needed more thought to it. Alcibiades stands alone on this one, being the only one to have acted out of self-interest who only spoke to protect his name and gain a few points of honor here and there. Within the same book Thucydides presents two debates that ask the same question of the speakers where the answer apparently depends on the debate and the text.
Stem cell research began in 1956 when Dr. E Donnall Thomas performed the first bone marrow transplant (“Adult stem cells are not more promising,” 2007). Since that time, research has evolved into obtaining cells from a variety of tissues. According to stem cell research professors, Ariff Bongso and Eng Hin Lee (2005), “Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the human body that are capable of becoming cells, each with new specialized functions” (p. 2). Stem cells are in various adult tissues, such as bone marrow, the liver, the epidermis layer of skin, the central nervous system, and eyes. They are also in other sources, such as fetuses, umbilical cords, placentas, embryos, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are cells from adult tissues that have been reprogrammed to pluripotency. Most stem cells offer multipotent cells, which are sparse...
The possibility to cure Alzheimer, Parkinson’s, AIDS, spinal injuries, and many more diseases and conditions is received by many in the medical world with excitement and anticipation. The discoveries of embryonic stem, ES, cells in 1998 by James A. Thomson, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was a great breakthrough for the medical world, showing great promise in the field of stem cell research. This is because they have the capacity to become any type of cell tissue in the body. To the medical world the opportunities seems endless. However, there is a great deal of debate by some who question the moral and ethical use of ES cells, believing that life begins at fertilization. Supporters argue that we have an obligation to help others who are suffering by using ES cells, because they are consider potential life. The question is do we have the right to use ES cells for research purposes when the embryos will be grown specifically for research and destruction? And if so, should this research be funded by the government?
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
Dante’s Inferno explores a Hell made by God in his quest for justice toward unrepentant sinners on Earth. It can be assumed the punishment in Hell is a direct result of unrepentance before death on Earth, or in the words of Dante, “Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift” (Alighieri). Dante shows this concept in a few different ways. An example would be the lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta who are condemned to the second circle of Hell due to an adulterous love affair that occurred after reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. They felt they were not responsible for their lustful adulterous actions; it is obvious to c...
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
Julius has been making profit off of the vineyard for many years. He has claimed this vineyard as his ter...
Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.
Upon entering hell with Virgil, Dante becomes witness to the true perfection of the justice done to sinners after their earthly life is over. This divine justice inflicted by God chooses to punish the souls in hell in a way very similar or representative to how the souls sinned on Earth. For instance, those guilty of the sin of wrath "tear each other limb from limb" (133), a punishment which directly relates to the actions of the sinners. However, there are also punishments that are more symbolic of the actions of the sinners, such as th...