On Human Cloning
How should we think about cloning as philosophers and feminists? Reproduction by cloning is not, in itself, morally inferior to human sexual reproduction. Moral criticism of cloning rests on condemnation of its "unnaturalness" or "impiety," but this kind of criticism should not persuade non-believers. I evaluate cloning in two phases. First, some hypothetical situations involving private choices about cloning are examined within a liberal framework. From this individualistic perspective, cloning appears no more morally problematic than sexual reproduction. A liberal feminist may welcome the possibility of human cloning as an expansion of the range of reproductive options open to women. The second phase argues for a shift in the framework of analysis in order to get a more complete evaluation of the ethical implications of human cloning, including questions of distributive justice and the ideology of reproduction.
How should we think about cloning as philosophers and feminists? Reproducing by cloning is not, in itself, morally inferior to reproducing by human sexual reproduction. Moral criticism of cloning in itself rests on condemnation of cloning's "unnaturalness" or "impiety," but this kind of criticism should not persuade non-believers. In this paper, cloning is evaluated in two phases. First, some hypothetical situations involving private choices about cloning are examined within a liberal framework. From this individualistic perspective, cloning appears no more morally problematic than is sexual reproduction. A liberal feminist may welcome the possibility of human cloning, as expanding the range of reproductive options open to women. The second phase argues for a shift in framework of analysis to get a more complete evaluation of the ethical implications of human cloning, including questions of distributive justice and the ideology of reproduction.
In this paper, "cloning" refers to a process begun when an enucleated oocyte receives a complete set of genetic material from one adult of the same species, and then develops. The resultant cloned embryo is genetically identical to the adult supplying the DNA. Thus, cloning differs from sexual reproduction, in which half the genetic material of the fertilized egg is supplied from the oocyte itself and half from the sperm. It is also different from "twinning," in which an egg, once fertilized sexually, splits into two genetically identical zygotes, each of which may develop into an embryo. In February 1997, Dr. Ian Wilmut announced the birth of Dolly, the cloned offspring of an ewe. If it is possible to clone sheep, why not then humans?
Silver’s argument illustrates to his audience that reproductive cloning is permissible, but most people in today’s society frown upon reproductive cloning and don’t accept it. He believes that each individual has the right to whether or not they would want to participate in reproductive cloning because it is their reproductive right. However, those who participate in cloning run the risk of other’s imposing on their reproductive rights, but the risk would be worth it to have their own child.
Cassidy, John. "Why Edward Snowden Is a Hero." The New Yorker. N.p., 10 June 2013. Web. 15 Feb.
In May of 2013 Edward Snowden who was then working at a National Security Agency office in Oahu, Hawaii began copying top secret documents that belonged to the American government as he believed the documentation contained unethical and immoral content that he believed the American people and the world in general needed to know about. (Snowden, 2014) The documentation that he collated contained information regarding projects such as Prism, which is a top secret NSA surveillance program that has the ability to access the data servers of some of America's large...
Currently, Snowden’s leaks have revealed a global surveillance apparatus used by the NSA as well as Britain’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, a surveillance apparatus in the UK that conducts real time monitoring of social media networks. The exact size of Snowden's disclosure is unknown, but the following are possible: 15,000 or more Australian intelligence files, according to Australian officials9; at least 58,000 British intelligence files, according to British officials10; and roughly 1.7 million U.S. intelligence files, according to U.S. officials.11 Snowden’s leaks are unprecedented on several levels. His disclosure has been called the most significant leak in U.S. history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.12 Regardless of future action, the debate on the protection of...
Cassidy, John. "Why Edward Snowden Is a Hero." The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
Snowden's confession over exposing the confidential documents that reveals the NSA's surveillance program has influenced the public with different interpretation. In his interview, Snowden stated that “ The public needs to decide whether these programs, and polices are right or wrong.” The face-work of Edward Snowden provided to the public by using the free press is in a justice image of him. His stated that the disclosure of the U.S. government and NSA is to let people to see the truth and their life has been compromised. Some people perceive...
"Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry." The President's Council on Bioethics Washington, D.C. N.p., July-Aug. 2002. Web.
Now, the debate rages on: Is Edward Snowden an American hero or an American villain. The United States government wants to bring treason and espionage against him for leaking some of the most confidential government secrets, but, what most people didn’t know before this whole debacle was that the government was uncontrollably spying on its people using any type of phone, tablet, or computer, Now the government’s response to the outrage of the people would be that they are protecting them from possible terrorists, but some may still ask the question of: Is the government violating my privacy? After gathering all the information, it is up to you to decide: Is Edward Snowden an American hero for exposing to the people of the U.S. the government’s dirty spying secrets or is he an American traitor guilty of espionage and treason?
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.
Edward Snowden, the famous “whistleblower”, shocked the world with his revelations about the NSA’s database and the programs which allow the organization to access personal information not only of citizens of other nations, but also of citizens of the U.S. The most shocking revelation of all was not the existence of these programs, but the fact that the Obama administration allowed those programs to exist in direct violation of every U.S. citizen’s right to privacy.
In the beginning of Chapter 7, Lewis Vaughn challenges us with the question “Is it permissible for a society to put one of its members to death for committing a serious crime?” (Page 348). When people commit crimes no matter how bad, they should still be given rights. That being said opposing of the death penalty doesn’t overthrow the fact the victims did indeed break the law. Stephen Nathanson argues for this position, “those who commit terrible crimes still deserve some level of decent treatment simply because they remain living, functioning human beings”. He suggests that “by renouncing the use of death as punishment, we express and reaffirm our belief in the inalienable, unforfeitable core of human dignity” (Page 354).
As we age, the use of medication is often increased in an effort to treat illness and disease. In older adults this frequently results in the administration of multiple medications, both appropriately and inappropriately, at the same time. This is known as polypharmacy. While polypharmacy can exist with any age demographic, it is much more prevalent in older adults where the risk of multiple health conditions is greater. It is not uncommon, for example, for a patient to be treated with multiple therapeutic drug combinations in order to manage disease such as diabetes, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Kaufman, 2011, p. 49). Polypharmacy is associated as a major factor placing older adults at risk for an adverse drug event. As the number of medications increase, the need for monitoring becomes much more crucial. When there is a breakdown in proper monitoring, the older adult is significantly placed at a higher risk for negative health outcomes due to serious side effects, poor adherence, adverse drug reactions and adverse drug interactions.
The controversy surrounding Edward Snowden has been one of the most controversial whistleblowing stories regarding the United States. Snowden is a former technical contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, therefore he had access to a numerous amount of classified information. Working primarily with Glenn Greenwald, Snowden sent various government documents containing classified information. The top secret information that was leaked involved several ongoing mass surveillance programs of the United States government. These leaked documents exposed plans to seize and record all US and European telephone metadata as well as information from internet surveillance programs such as PRISM and Tempora. Consequently, this situation provoked many ethical dilemmas to surface. In this memo I will argue whether Edward Snowden
Air conditioning is an amenity that many homeowners value. It is one appliance in homes and businesses that uses a large amount of electricity. An AC system represents half of the energy use in a building (Perez-Lombard 2011). Although it is hard to establish a universal system design due to the differences in building design, HVAC (heating ventilating and cooling) units are becoming more efficient then they were in the past. Modern day systems can intelligently pump air into rooms based on occupancy, thus eliminating the need to cool or heat an unoccupied room and dramatically reducing the cost of cooling and the demand on the power grid (Demetriou 2009). A large number of smart sensors and controls can be retro fitted to HVAC units to provide such capabilities (Valenti 2002). HVAC systems pull a large amount of power from the power grid. Although smart grid technology is starting to become popular, HVAC systems need to be used wisely. This mea...
Electricity when viewed from an economic perspective is probably the most important man-made commodity of human race. Ever since its invention and commercial use in 18th century to this day, its contribution to progress, growth, innovation and development to mankind has been unequivocal. Electricity markets over the decades have always been regional, oligopolistic and vertically integrated. However, in the last few decades, power markets world-wide are being transformed from highly regulated Government controlled power markets into deregulated and competitive power markets. The traditional vertically integrated electric utility structures of yester-years have been replaced by a deregulated and competitive market scheme in many countries worldwide (Li et al., 2007; Weron, 2006, Girish et al., 2014).