human-cloning-vs.doc

1. K.Whiteside

2.L. Walton

3. S. Wilkerson

other:

1. http://paperpeoples.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/ill-mind-healthy-body/

2. Lisa

3. http://www.kcfilmcritics.com/american-idol-tightens-up/#comment-23

Overachievers Over Crammed Life 

            They do everything.  They’re in every sport.  They’re in every club.  They’re in every thing that will help them succeed.  These are overachievers. Overachievers are becoming more and more common in high schools because of the pressure put on students to succeed in today’s society.  This pressure creates a highly competitive environment in schools to be the best of the best.  How is this culture affecting students? 

            Many teenagers loose passion and focus when caught by the overwhelming pressure to overachieve. In order to become a “well rounded” person like most college’s would prefer, their time has to be used wisely.  With only the few hours in a day teenagers have to divide their attention among a variety of things.  This is because overachievers have over scheduled life’s.  The pressure to excel in every area makes teenagers lose the chance of finding something they truly enjoy, or find a special talent.  The overscheduled lives of teenager’s results in an overscheduled life’s of adults.  Never finding what they truly enjoy, and just doing what is necessary to succeed.   

            Overachieving causes poor mental and physical health.  Many overachievers would agree there is not enough time in the day to get everything they need to done.  The huge workload brought on leave little, if any time to sleep.  Sleep deprivation is very common among overachieving students.  Many sleep less than six hours per night.  The lack of time leads to not eating the proper three meals a day.  Many just have time to get fast food or food on the go which leads to a bad diet of unhealthy things.  Taking on too many tasks a day is a leading cause of teenage stress. Overachieving teenagers over crammed life is draining them mentally and physically.   

            Overall, the bright future of overachieving teens may lead to a future of unpleasant work and stress.  It might seem now that overachieving will get you far in life, but isn’t life worth enjoying?

The Teen Addiction

     The lives of teens seem to gets crazier every day.  There is a constant need to fit in the “crowd”.  To get this social status there is need for expensive clothes, phones, and cars.  Those are just a few of the necessities teenagers believe they need. Then with the want of popularity comes the parties and with parties comes the alcohol. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says, more than 80 percent of all high school seniors have tried alcohol and one-third say that most or all of their friends get drunk at least once a week. Today, drinking is the best way to fit in socially, but it is also the best way to die.  According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, there are 105,000 alcohol related deaths annually due to drunken drivers and alcohol related injuries and diseases.

      Teen alcohol use contributes to lower inhibitions.  When teenagers are under the influence of alcohol they are more likely to make bad decisions.  This is because alcohol clouds a person’s judgment.  The voice usually inside their head telling them something is wrong or right is no longer there. For example, no body decided to smoke crack when they were sober.  Also, the chances of sexual promiscuity begin to rise with intake of alcohol.  Approximately One Million teens become pregnant each year in the United States.  Less intake of alcohol for teenagers would instantly decrease the amount of teen births per year.  There will always be affects of teenage alcohol abuse.   

     A human’s brain continues to grow until the age of eighteen.  The intake of alcohol prohibits this growth.  The Marine Instute’s research shows teen drinkers score worse than their non-drinking peers on vocabulary, visual-spatial, and memory tests, and are more likely to perform poorly in school as a whole.  Some might not believe it, but this is one of the reasons there is a drinking age of 21. 

     Almost all alcohol intakes among teenagers involve driving.  This usually ends up in either their death or someone else’s.  The teenager is never pressured to drive while drunk, but is usually pressured to drink.  For example, once a person has driven to a party and is pressure do drink they are more than likely going to drive back home.  This is because teenagers do not realize the effects of alcohol and misjudge the driving abilities.  Teenagers do not believe that anything could ever happen to them, so they don’t believe they could ever be harmed while drunk driving.  First Eagle statistics say differently, 60 percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol-related.

      Overall, teenagers do not need to drink.  Parents need to be involved in their children’s life and teach them the effects of alcohol, and with their parents disapproval the overabundance of teenage drinkers would decrease.   If we do not inform our youth now the effects of alcohol could be fatal. 

Obese Swallowing America

Eating away their lives

     The woman steps on the scale just to find the same weight she continues to have week after week.  She tries to hold back the tears as she looks at herself in the mirror.  Why her?  She asks herself. Why has she been this way all her life? FAT.

     America is one of the riches countries in the world, but it is also the unhealthiest.  It is home to the most obese people in the world.  Obesity is rapidly growing today in America.  It is a huge problem that needs to be stopped. Like the woman described above it causes many emotional and physical damages that can never be fixed. 

     Obesity starts at a young age. According to the AACAP between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese. Many problems can lead to obesity in children.  For one, they are taught bad eating habits that continue throughout their life. They continue to eat fatty, fried, and junk foods. Some never eat home cooked meals.  They just go to fast food restaurants that are usually unhealthy. Also, children are taught to eat fast at schools because of the time limit on their lunch.  Eating slower will allow them to realize when they are full.   Another contributing factor to childhood obesity is that they are never taught to exercise.  The video games aimed towards children and teens are a huge factor in creating “couch potatoes”.  If their parents do not exercise then their children are most likely not going to exercise.  Parents play a tremendous role in establishing their children’s health.

     Many emotional effects come from and are causing obesity.   Low self esteem and little self-confidents is just one of the effects that obesity can cause.  This emotional problem gives them no willpower in making strides towards improving their health and losing weight.  It actually causes them to blame themselves for lack of control and they end up resorting to “comfort food” usually high in fat and calories. 

      Physical problems occur when becoming obese.  It can cause many diseases such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, cardiovascular, and osteoarthritis.  Standford Hospital found that each year obesity-related conditions cost over 100 billion dollars and cause an estimated 300,000 premature deaths in the US. It also states that in women, being overweight contributes to an increased risk for a variety of cancers including breast, colon, gallbladder, and uterus. Men who are overweight have a higher risk of colon and prostate cancers.  There are many physical problems that have been found because of being overweight. 

     Overall, the effects of obesity are greatly increasing for the worse as more and more Americans suffer from the threatening disease of obesity. Will you be next?  Or will you fight to overcome the epidemic in America?

The Hannah Montana Epidemic

Will she be just another fad or a new pop legend in the making?

      There is a constant roar coming from the stands.  Everyone is shouting, “Hannah! Hannah! Hannah!”  The intensity gets stronger by the minute as people wait to see the real person that they have heard so many times on the radio and seen on television.  She is their role model.  She is their idol.  She is their life.

    The Hannah epidemic begins.  Her huge debut staring on the Disney show Hannah Montanta made her sales skyrocket.  The soundtrack was the eighth best selling album of 2006 in the U.S., with nearly two million copies sold that year.  According to Wikipedia, the album has sold 3.2 million copies in the U.S. and over 4 million copies worldwide.  Her songs from the show constantly play on the radio.  Equally as successful is her own clothing line and wig collection.  This contributes greatly to her popularity and sales.  Many have fallen under the spell of Hannah.

      Hannah has millions of fans all over the world. One of her great marketing strategies has been trying to be everything to everyone. She became famous while staring in her hit television show Hannah Montana on Disney.  In this show she develops two identities; one is Hannah Montana, the teenage pop sensation, and the other is Miley Cyrus, the normal teenage girl.   This allows her to be interesting to two age groups of girls–young and teenage.  Like one of her songs says, she really is trying to get the “best of both worlds.”

      When a person becomes famous, the media instantly tries to bring them down.  They are always trying to find something wrong with stars, because unfortunately the public want to know about it, and that’s what sells.  Recently, the media has questioned many things concerning of Hannah Montana.  Or should I say Miley Cyrus?  One of her very devoted fans videotaped Hannah’s double at one of her concerts.  When she saw the body double in place of Hannah Montana, she was appalled because her perfect image of Hannah was crushed.  According to a YouTube video many fans felt cheated because they did not get to see the real Hannah Montana–the Hannah Montana that they paid big bucks to see.  Also recently in the news was a scandal involving Hannah taking inappropriate pictures kissing a girl.  Hannah says, “the leaked photos were total innocent.”  This is just another example of how the media today is trying to destroy someone’s fame.

   Perhaps she said it best with the title of a recently released song–”Nobody’s Perfect.”  Hannah Montana is, in fact, “Just Like You” and I.  She goes through the same stuff.  She still eats dinner with her family.  She makes mistakes.  Except when she does, it ends up on the cover of People magazine.

1. Ehrenreich talks about how race and class are a huge determining factor in how people get by in America.  Do you believe that Ehrenreich experience would have been different if she was a single parent or a person of color.  How did discrimination shape Ehrenreich investigation? 

2. Throughout the story it shows the constant struggles of Ehrenreich.  The skyrocketing apartment rates, the need for more pay by the hour, and the need to get by in America are just some of the problems she faces.  Do you think that having a low wage job is much different from not even having a job at all?  What’s the difference? 

3.  How does lack of time and information affect Ehrenreich and other low-wage workers?  Is this why they cannot find other alternatives?

THE AMERICAN VOTING CONFLICT

In 2004, the shocking 66 million plus votes nominating Americas favorite singers, in the hit show American Idol, exceeded the total number of votes ever recorded during an Presidential election.  What drives Americans to stoop down to this level? When their entertainment becomes more important to them than who will be running their country.  Should Americans be ashamed of themselves?  The reasons are clear why people vote more on the show than the president.  American Idol executives have made it as easy as possible to allow anyone to vote. Any aged person with an AT&T wireless phone can vote for their favorite singer by watching the show.  So in turn many of the votes for American Idol come from teens and pre-teens that cannot yet vote for the president. This is a tremendous disadvantages for the presidential election, because in order to vote for the president you have to be at least 18 or older and a United States citizen.  Also, for American Idol you can vote as many times as possible in the two-hour time limit.  If American Idol removed the millions of duplicated votes what would be the real amount of people who actually voted?  People in America are being drawn everyday to exciting reality shows that have become more interesting to them than politics. Should Americans rethink their priorities?  Are Americans abusing their freedom to vote on something unimportant?

·        http://blog.tmcnet.com/beyond-voip/entertainment/american-idol-voting-surpasses-highest-total-of-voters-for-president.asp

http://www.progressiveu.org/064001-voting-american-idol-vs-presidential-elections

5 Rhetorical devices

        There are tons of rhetorical devices everywhere.  They’re in songs, books, and advertisements.  The “average Joes” or normal people usually do not ever see rhetorical devices in anything, because they just take a quick glance.  It’s hard to believe that people take the time to actually put rhetorical devices in everything, but if you look close they can be found in many places. 

·       “Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow” = Repetition

                                                        Classic Christmas song

·       “Got Milk?” =         Rhetorical Question

                                 Famous Advertisement

·       “Mercy on us goodwife!” = Archaic

                                        Quote from the Scarlet Letter

·       “ Toyota… the best car on the road!” = Hyperbole

                                                                              Toyota advertisment

·       “It starts at my toes, makes me crinkle my nose” =  Juxtaposition

                                                                                                     song by Collie Cailat

Therapeutic vs reproductive cloning

Advanced Cell Technology has been at pains to point out that their research is for ‘therapeutic cloning’ — that is, for medical purposes — rather than ‘reproductive cloning’, which would aim to develop a new individual.

The distinction between the two is in the treatment of the embryo once somatic nuclear transfer has occurred.

Therapeutic cloning destroys the embryo in the process of deriving stem cells. With reproductive cloning, the embryo would be implanted into a womb for gestation into a baby.

Stem cells can be kept in culture and continually replenished.

“The whole purpose of doing this [research] would be to add to the cell lines that presently exist,” explained Professor White.

“At the moment stem cell lines already exist that are being continued in culture in many countries.”

Stem cells are a type of cell that can be transformed into virtually any of the 200 kinds of cell in the human body. This means that, in theory at least, they can be grown ‘to order’ to help people suffering from degenerative diseases.

In a treatment situation, the DNA from the patient would be injected into a woman’s egg that had had its DNA extracted.

“The egg is grown to the stage where in the blastocyst you could harvest and then grow up in culture, some of those stem cells which would be useful for you personally,” explained Professor White. “That is the hope.”

Stems cells can also be harvested from adults.

“There are many places where stem cells must be present because bone and other tissues regenerate,” said Professor White.

“But whether those cells are totally potent — that is, they can become any other cell — is not in my view proven.”

 Kingsley, Danny. “Print Email to a Friend.” News in Science. 27 Nov.-Dec. 2001. ABC Science Online. 3 Oct.-Nov. 2007 <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s426244.htm>.

InSenate vote set on human cloning; Biotech: Reproductive Cloning Vs. Therapeutic Research Debate Continues. (Teck Talk).  the coming weeks, the U.S. Senate will vote on a bill that would ban all types of human cloning or adopt an alternative measure that would leave the door open for medical research.

The House of Representatives has already passed legislation introduced by Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Mary Landrieu, DLa., to ban human cloning for both reproductive and research purposes.

President George W. Bush said he would sign the bill.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents the nation’s biotech industry, and its San Diego affiliate, Biocom, as well as several scientific groups, are pinning their hopes on a bill introduced last month by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats, that would criminalize the use of cloning to create humans, but allow it for research.

The debate pits anti-abortion groups and other opponents who view human cloning as unethical and potentially dangerous against scientists and patients hoping for new treatments of such debilitating diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Lutz Giebel, president and CEO of CyThera Inc. of San Diego, said he is probably one of the few scientists to express reservations on the benefits of research cloning — which involves creating and destroying embryos to obtain cells and tissue to treat disease.

He said therapeutic cloning may be too costly to become a viable business model.

“I believe that a ban (on therapeutic cloning) would not have a big impact in deriving therapies from embryonic stem cells in the near future,” Giebel said.

In contrast to therapeutic cloning, embryonic stem cell research derives cells and tissue from embryos left over from in vitro fertilization.

These unspecialized cells are already being tested in animals for use in repairing spinal cord damage and Parkinson’s disease.

CyThera has nine out of 76 total stem cell lines approved for federally funded research.

The biotech startup hopes to trick stem cells into making pancreatic islet cells — the cells that make insulin which are destroyed in TypeI diabetes — and thus, develop therapies without using controversial cloning technology.

The same cells could theoretically be used for cloning technology.

But Giebel said he has no intention of pursuing therapeutic cloning, which uses a person’s own DNA to grow cells like brain neurons to potentially treat Alzheimer’s disease.

To grow genetically identical neurons that wouldn’t be rejected by one’s own body would be extremely challenging, considering there are some 20,000 different tissue types, he said.

Doctors would need to generate a single line for each individual patient and that would be very costly, Giebel said.

Joseph Panetta, CEO and president of Biocom, the local trade association for life sciences firms and Larry Goldstein, a UCSD professor, however, said there are potentially huge benefits and predicted a ban would have a “chilling effect on research.”

Most of the therapeutic cloning is done at the basic research level in institutions such as UCSD, the Scripps Research Institute and Salk Institute, Panetta said.

Goldstein, who works on embryonic stem cells, said their research is pivotal in discovering new therapies.

Giebel echoed their views, saying “a ban could do some serious damage, because we don’t know what the potentials are.”

He said a similar debate that took place in the 1970s around recombinant DNA,” a technology that has yielded more than 100 drugs, including monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer, hormones to treat infertility and clot-dissolvers for stroke victims.

Back then, scientists adhered to a moratorium.

Similarly, 40 Nobel Prize laureates recently released a letter in strong support of cloning.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a leading Republican, drew harsh criticism from anti-abortion allies when he announced his support for research cloning.

Panetta warned if a total cloning ban is enforced, the United States could lose its competitive edge to such countries as the United Kingdom, which allows cloning.

 Webb, Marion. “Senate Vote Set on Human Cloning; Biotech: Reproductive Cloning Vs. Therapeutic Research Debate Continues. (Teck Talk).” Goliath. 20 May 2002. 2 Oct.-Nov. 2007 http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-1859621_ITM.

Therapeutic versus reproductive cloning

Two different forms of human cloning underpin the debate on liberalising the laws on human fertilisation. One is backed by law and allows scientists to create embryos and study them for up to 14 days. The aim is to create stem cells, the progenitors of all the body’s different tissues including skin, heart, brain and liver cells.

In understanding this process, researchers hope they will learn how to turn one type of cell into cells that make up a completely different type of organ or limb. Thus an individual’s skin cells could be reprogrammed to become liver or heart cells and used to replace diseased tissue. The problem of organ rejection would not arise as an individual’s own cells would be the object of the transplant.

This is therapeutic cloning and over the past year first approval for trials at UK research centres has been given by the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority. Most recently, Ian Wilmott, creator of Dolly the Sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal, was given approval for therapeutic cloning work to help sufferers of motor neurone disease.

Reproductive cloning involves taking a cell from an adult human to create an embryo that is allowed to develop beyond its current 14-day limit and reach the stage of a fully formed baby. Dolly was created from a single cell snipped from her genetic ‘parent’, but this form of cloning is outlawed in humans. The select committee says it is time to consider allowing reproductive cloning, though it is does not outline under what circumstances it should be viewed as acceptable.

McKie, Robin. “Therapeutic Versus Reproductive Cloning.” Guardian Unlimited. 20 Mar. 2005. 4 Oct.-Nov. 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,,1441950,00.html.

 Therapeutic Cloning vs. Reproductive Cloning

Cloning has been a highly controversial subject as of late, but in fact, cloning has been around for many years. Plants have been cloned for decades and the first animal to be cloned was a tadpole in the 1950s. Since that time, a number of animals have been cloned, including sheep, cows and mice.

Types of Cloning
There are two main types of cloning: reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. These procedures are governed by different laws because they are used for different purposes.

Reproductive Cloning

Reproductive cloning is performed with the express intent of creating another organism. This organism is the exact duplicate of one that already exists or has existed in the past. Cloning of plants, animals, and humans falls into the class of reproductive cloning.

How is Reproductive Cloning Performed?
Reproductive cloning is performed using a technique called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). The genetic material from a donor egg is removed, so that you are left with an empty egg. Then, a cell is taken from the organism to be cloned and its nucleus is removed. This nucleus is then transferred into the empty donor egg. Using chemicals or a mild electric shock, the egg is forced to divide, creating an embryo. This embryo is then transferred into the uterus of the host organism.

What Is Reproductive Cloning Used For?
Reproductive cloning has only been used for research purposes, however, its future implications are staggering. Reproductive cloning could be used effectively for repopulating endangered species or to help make breeding of specific animals easier. Reproductive cloning uses could also include the production of organisms with specific characteristics, such as drug-producing animals or genetically “unique” animals.

Therapeutic Cloning

Therapeutic cloning is performed, not to produce another organism, but to harvest embryonic stem cells for use in medical treatments. Embryonic stem cells are those cells found inside of developing embryos. They can be used to produce a number of different cells including tissue, muscle, and organ cells.

How is Therapeutic Cloning Performed?
The therapeutic cloning process is very similar to that of reproductive cloning, however, instead of implanting the dividing embryo into a host, it’s stem cells are removed and the embryo dies. A cell is removed from the patient requiring medical treatment. The nucleus of this cell is removed and inserted into an empty donor egg. Division is encouraged through the use of special chemicals or an electric current. The resulting embryonic stem cells are then removed from this embryo and used to treat the patient.

What is Therapeutic Cloning Used For?
Therapeutic cloning is intended for medical use. The embryonic stem cells that this type of cloning produces can be used to create skin for burn victims, organs for transplant patients, or cells for those with spinal cord injuries. And because the cells come from the patient herself, there are no issues of cell rejection. Therapeutic cloning may also help those suffering from heart disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, or Parkinson’s Disease.

Ethical Concerns about Cloning

There are a number of ethical concerns surrounding the use of reproductive and therapeutic cloning. Many people are against the cloning of embryos or the use of embryonic stem cells for research or therapeutic purposes.

Reproductive cloning is of particular concern. Many people see the cloning of plants and animals as interfering with the progression of nature. People also fear that human cloning could take place, and could result in the cloning of human babies tailored to specific genetic characteristics.

Therapeutic cloning is also hotly debated. Because human embryos are destroyed after the stem cells are removed, many see therapeutic cloning as unnatural and even barbaric. For this reason, many countries do not allow therapeutic cloning.

Cord Blood Stem Cells and Cloning

If you have chosen to store your child’s cord blood, these umbilical stem cells can be used to help treat him in the event of illness or disease. In the future, it may be possible to use cloning techniques to help reproduce these stem cells, so that more are available for your family’s use.

Many feel that using umbilical cord blood stem cells for therapeutic cloning is a more ethically and morally responsible way to clone human tissue. Additionally, obtaining stem cells from umbilical cord blood is much simpler than collecting stem cells from other sources. As stem cell knowledge and techniques advance, the ability to use cord blood stem cells in more diverse ways becomes more of a reality every day.

“Therapeutic Cloning Vs. Reproductive Cloning.” Pregnancy Info.Net. 2001. 4 Oct.-Nov. 2007 <http://www.pregnancy-info.net/StemCell/therapeutic_vs_reproductive.html>.