Wednesday, April 22, 2020
The Recent News Of The Successful Cloning Of An Adult Sheep-in Essays
  The recent news of the successful cloning of an adult sheep-in  which the sheep's DNA was inserted into an unfertilized sheep egg to  produce a lamb with identical DNA-has generated an outpouring of  ethical concerns. These concerns are not about Dolly, the now famous  sheep, nor even about the considerable impact cloning may have on the  animal breeding industry, but rather about the possibility of cloning  humans. For the most part, however, the ethical concerns being raised  are exaggerated and misplaced, because they are based on erroneous  views about what genes are and what they can do. The danger,  therefore, lies not in the power of the technology, but in the  misunderstanding of its significance.    Producing a clone of a human being would not amount to  creating a "carbon copy"-an automaton of the sort familiar from  science fiction. It would be more like producing a delayed identical  twin. And just as identical twins are two separate  people-biologically, psychologically, morally and legally, though not  genetically-so a clone is a separate person from his or her  non-contemporaneous twin. To think otherwise is to embrace a belief in  genetic determinism-the view that genes determine everything about us,  and that environmental factors or the random events in human  development are utterly insignificant. The overwhelming consensus  among geneticists is that genetic determinism is false.    As geneticists have come to understand the ways in which genes  operate, they have also become aware of the myriad ways in which the  environment affects their "expression." The genetic contribution to  the simplest physical traits, such as height and hair color, is  significantly mediated by environmental factors. And the genetic  contribution to the traits we value most deeply, from intelligence to  compassion, is conceded by even the most enthusiastic genetic  researchers to be limited and indirect. Indeed, we need only appeal to  our ordinary experience with identical twins-that they are different  people despite their similarities-to appreciate that genetic  determinism is false.    Furthermore, because of the extra steps involved, cloning will  probably always be riskier-that is, less likely to result in a live  birth-than in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer. (It took  more than 275 attempts before the researchers were able to obtain a  successful sheep clone. While cloning methods may improve, we should  note that even standard IVF techniques typically have a success rate  of less than 20 percent.) So why would anyone go to the trouble of  cloning?    There are, of course, a few reasons people might go to the  trouble, and so it's worth pondering what they think they might  accomplish, and what sort of ethical quandaries they might engender.    Consider the hypothetical example of the couple who wants to replace a  child who has died. The couple doesn't seek to have another child the  ordinary way because they feel that cloning would enable them to  reproduce, as it were, the lost child. But the unavoidable truth is  that they would be producing an entirely different person, a delayed  identical twin of that child. Once they understood that, it is  unlikely they would persist.    But suppose they were to persist? Of course we can't deny that  possibility. But a couple so persistent in refusing to acknowledge the  genetic facts is not likely to be daunted by ethical considerations or  legal restrictions either. If our fear is that there could be many  couples with that sort of psychology, then we have a great deal more  than cloning to worry about.    Another disturbing possibility is the person who wants a clone  in order to have acceptable "spare parts" in case he or she needs an  organ transplant later in life. But regardless of the reason that  someone has a clone produced, the result would nevertheless be a human  being with all the rights and protections that accompany that status.    It truly would be a disaster if the results of human cloning were seen  as less than fully human. But there is certainly no moral  justification for and little social danger of that happening; after  all, we do not accord lesser status to children who have been created  through IVF or embryo transfer.    There are other possibilities we could spin out. Suppose a  couple wants a "designer child"-a clone of Cindy Crawford or Elizabeth    Taylor-because they want a daughter who will grow up to be as  attractive as those women. Indeed, suppose someone wants a clone,  never mind of whom, simply to enjoy the notoriety of having one. We  cannot rule out such cases as impossible. Some people produce children  for all sorts of frivolous or contemptible reasons. But we must  remember that cloning is not as easy as going to a video store or    
Friday, April 17, 2020
Sample Essay on Paradoxes
Sample Essay on ParadoxesThe aim of this article is to share with you a sample essay on paradoxes. Paradoxes are a very common topic in philosophy. However, paradoxes can be found in different situations and there is a great deal of information available on paradoxes.The sample essay I'm going to be discussing is a second year essay. It will follow a previous essay by the same name that was given to me by my professor. You can find the earlier version of this essay here: 'To Legally Get Married'.The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate to students the skills needed to write a well-written essay using this particular topic. I want to make sure that every student gets some exposure to this topic, and hopefully, they will learn something new or improve upon some aspect of their writing. I also want them to understand how to frame an argument before they begin to construct the actual argument.A lot of students hate reading or writing long, wordy essays. I'm hoping that this can spark    some interest in them. I know that I enjoyed it, even if it did get a little repetitive in parts. My professor only gives three or four word essays and I feel I could have used a little more time.The example sentence that I used is 'A doctor told me that many patients complained of nausea and vomiting at the end of the procedure, but when I asked why, he didn't know the answer.' I tried to make the example as simple as possible to make it easier for people to follow. In my opinion, one of the worst things a person can do is just use a complex word to make their example sound better. The best way to show someone a complex idea is to show them a concrete example, which is exactly what I did in this example.Once the example sentence is complete, I want to then look at it and identify problems. The problem will tell me what sort of problem I need to work on. This way, I'll be able to write a more effective essay that isn't overly long.Also, the example essay is an example of an essay th   at can be written in a variety of styles, such as scholarly, formal, informal, or even bad grammar. The fact that it is lengthy is a good thing because it will help me write a more interesting essay. As I am studying for my first paper on paradoxes, this means that I will have to study and memorize more material.After I finish reading, writing, or rewriting this essay, I would like to do a rewrite of the paragraph about writing a bad essay. In this case, I would need to look at the paragraph and start looking for the signs of a good essay.  
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