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“Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.”

- Henry Ford

Friday, April 18, 2008

Issues surrounding genetics

There's plenty of issues surrounding genetics today, but 2 of the biggest ones are cloning (which includes tissue restoration) and incest. These issues of genetics challenge us heavily in our modern-day society to ask ourselves what is right and what is wrong. Some say such things are just "cultural taboos" and nothing more, but I ask you, are they really just that? We'll take a look at some of the reasoning behind the dislike towards such things.

Firstly, we'll start off with cloning and tissue restoration. There's a few ways that you can get the stem cells needed to go through the process necessary to provide the proper results. The first is destroying an embryo, the second is taking stem cells from an adult's bone marrow, and the third is taking the stem cells from fetal tissue (stem cells are very prevalent here because the fetus required many stem cells to develop, but things got kind of "half-way" since they were aborted during their most important period of growth). When Clem Persaud came to St. Jean De Brebeuf Catholic Secondary School (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) in 2008, he discussed the differences between these different methods of extracting stem cells.

The first method of extracting stem cells, according to Clem, is the most unethical at all for these reasons: if women are creating these embryos just to be destroyed for medical purposes, they will be thought of as "egg carriers," which is demeaning. Furthermore, stem cells extracted from embryos can be cancerous.

The second method of extraction is very ethical, because you can take the cells from an adult, have them divide and divide, and give back the necessary amount of cells to the adult. These cells taken from the adult can help repair an injury in one month rather than several months. It's also key to note that they are not cancerous at all.

The last method is moderate; in between the ethical levels of the second and first methods mentioned. The reason being is that there's the possibility that some women will abort their babies due to bribes for the baby's stem cells. However, if there's sufficient enough evidence that this wasn't why the abortion was finalized, then taking the stem cells would be ethical, though some would find it debateably unethical.

Now, onto incest.

Sometimes, 2 people from the same family have sex. Let's say they had a child together, just for the sake of this explanation. Within families, there is usually a few diseases that are recessive, meaning that those people don't suffer from the disease but carry it, and will send it to their future children if their partner carries the recessive gene as well. It actually doubles the chance that their offspring will develop these genetic weaknesses, such as cancer, diabetes, etc... and also, quite early.

I've just provided you with a bit of background on some of the reasoning behind the anti-incest and general genetic ethics. I would love to hear what you say, but don't provide me with irrelevent crap.

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