Genetic Engineering Philosophical Paper Essay Example for Free

Genetic Engineering Philosophical Paper Essay Genetic Engineering Defined We live in a period of science breakthroughs and accomplishments.   For over centuries now, science has been constantly pursuing its ambition to hold nature’s natural course within its grasp.   Perhaps one field that can fit this description is genetic engineering which is a laboratory technique to change the DNA of living organisms (What is Genetic Engineering).   A good view of genetic engineering can perhaps be seen in the film Gattaca where one of the main characters, Vincent (played by Ethan Hawke), is not able to accept his genetic fate.    Basing on his character, the film views how genetic engineering can affect an individual’s self-esteem as well as how far it can push him to practice free will to fill this sense of emptiness. Effects of Genetic Engineering As to its effect on society, the movie shows how it serves as a solution in eliminating if not minimizing the consequences of genetic imperfection such as in-born diseases.   In fact, some also believe that genetic engineering can be beneficial not only with health and medicine but as well as food, agriculture, manufacturing, etc.   Even nowadays genetics have already made its benefits known by aiding in forensic investigations through DNA identification thus lessening the number of violent crimes (Genetic Engineering Benefits Society). However, there can also be possible risks when relying on this field of science particularly with eugenics, or the selection the future makeup of children which could lead to the elimination of some personal traits.   Another risk would be in the usage of biotechnology before exploring other options in terms of reproduction.   One example is implanting an egg from one woman into the uterus of another which might be hazardous if considered as a primary technique (Discovery Education: Genetic Engineering) Perhaps one of the things that the director of the movie Gattaca is trying to present is how genetic engineering can be a remedy or solution in altering human fate by making him somewhat more invincible.   After watching the film, I saw this field of science as something that can affect a person’s religious faith. This issue has been reinforced furthermore by the scene particularly during the birth of Vincent where he said, â€Å"He never understood what possessed his mother to put her faith in God’s hands rather than those of her local geneticists.† secondary to his rejection of the fact that he is too genetically imperfect to achieve his dreams.   As far as the film is concerned, this showed how genetic engineering can have the potential to tolerate such human behaviors which can ultimately lead him to play God once he gets the chance instead of practicing self-acceptance and humility. Ethical Implications of Genetic Engineering It has an ethical implication especially when it comes to religion.   Taking the views of the Church of Scotland for example, it states that although Christians have long regarded scientific research as a way of responding to God’s commands of â€Å"filling the earth and subduing it† from the first chapter of Genesis in the bible, it is but important to draw a line especially in the level of genetics as it is an alteration and manipulation of human genetics which is God’s exclusive rights only. Perhaps there would be exceptions such as issues that call for certain necessities like modifying pig hearts and lungs in case of serious shortage of suitable human donor organs.   However with or without the religious point of view, some practices of genetic manipulation can endanger the life of certain people if these are not properly controlled or monitored especially since we do not hold enough knowledge in harmfully interfering with nature.   Furthermore, this also distorts virtues like humility and creates erroneous perception of what people should be made up of physically in order to be happy (Are We Playing God?). The Swimming Scene   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This particular scene in the movie gives a certain twist in the view of genetic engineering.   Vincent was born with a 99% probability of heart disorder and so every time they do the swim race when they were kids, he often got tired first and lost to Anton.   But when they did it again when they were already grown ups, Anton lost the race and almost drowned.   When Vincent defeated Anton in the swimming race for the first time, this ultimately showed the strength of human spirit and how it can defeat even the genetically superior.   Apparently, it was as though Vincent was able to unconsciously imbibe self-confidence after all those times he spent with the genetically-engineered individuals. Uma Thurman’s Character   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Irene, Vincent’s love interest whom he met in Gattaca, is another perfect example of an individual who lacks self-confidence and spirit.   Compared to Vincent, her genes are almost perfect if not for a certain heart condition.   Perhaps it is due to the fact that Irene has also been a subject of comparison in Gattaca along with the pressures of being considered for a mission to Titan (one of the moons of the planet Saturn) that she is made to focus on her imperfection although in fact it is â€Å"smaller† as compared with her superior qualities.   If she were living in a community much normal than Gattaca, then there might be a greater chance for her to be happy and see her beautiful qualities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With regards to Irene’s character, I think what the director is trying to show is that not even technology can answer for a person’s search for self-fulfillment.   Technology is also capable of deceiving people from seeing reality or from seeing what a person truly is.   Irene fell in love with Vincent in the film but little did she know that he is no more than a mere trespasser in the space agency if not for the help of his friend Jerome, a genetically superior individual who was paralyzed by a car accident and gave his identity to Vincent. The Ending   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The movie had an amazing ending.   After all the struggles and suspense, Vincent was surprisingly able to pull everything off and made it to the space mission, defeating the majority of his genetically-superior colleagues in Gattaca and taking Jerome’s identity with him.   Jerome on the other hand, committed suicide.   Jerome’s tragic end is the saddest part of the movie.   He has been completely consumed by his misfortune that he literally gave his life away.   He just could not accept what has become of him and the identity that he lost from the accident was the only person he knew how to be, a winner.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As to Jerome’s suicide, this brought up an ethical issue that perhaps society cannot approve.   Once again it goes against the views of religion about God’s prerogatives of the human life.   Jerome willing his own death cannot be considered a rightful one for even though he had broken a spine or is out of money, his brain was still functioning well, he was speaking very well, and most of all he did not even lose his good looks from the accident so there could have been a chance for him to charm his way to love. According to an article about ethical issues related to life and death, a person only can have a self-imposed death if he has a terminal illness and his physician proclaims certain death in the very near future wherein artificial bodily support is deemed useless considering the very short period of time left (Ethical Issues Related To Life And Death).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The final scene was both puzzling and funny.   There was the main character about to board the space mission and after successfully making it through several nerve-wracking genetic testing, his urine test finally revealed his true invalid identity.   Yet for some strange reasons, the one in charge of this final step let him through after a brief sentimental conversation about his son being a big fan of Jerome a.k.a. Vincent. I cannot figure out whether to consider human compassion as a part of this scene.   But more importantly, what made the ending very significant is the overwhelming sense of triumph that the main character has brought with him after making to the mission and the great sense of relief that he was not apprehended despite revealing his true identity.   The ending of the story gives out a message that no matter how much we go through or change ourselves, we can never lose the person that we truly are and even the best technology cannot take that away. Reference    What is Genetic Engineering. Mothers for Natural Law.   Retrieved 11 February 2008 at http://www.safe-food.org/-issue/ge.html Are We Playing God? Moral and Ethical Issues in Gene Therapy.   Retrieved 11 February 2008 at http://www.srtp.org.uk/genthpy1.htm#Manip Coates, J., Mahaffie, J., and Hines, A.   2007.   Genetic Engineering Benefits Society.   Retrieved 11 February 2008 at http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461576345/Does_Genetic_Engineering_Benefit_Society_.html Genetic Engineering.   Discovery Education.   Retrieved 11 February 2008 at http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/geneticengineering/ Ethical Issues Related To Life And Death.   Retrieved 11 February 2008 at http://www.anabaptists.org/tracts/deathtrc.html

Art History of Central America :: essays papers

Art History of central America Chavin de Huantar was located in Peru and developed around 900 B.C. late in the Initial Period. At an elevation of 3,150 m., Chavin de Huantar was situated at the bottom of Cordillera Blanca’s eastern slopes, approximately halfway between tropical forests and coastal plains. At the intersection of major routes, Chavin de Huantar was in the position to control the routes, increase their exchange with others, and receive goods that were not natural to their area. Chavin de Huantar was an agricultural society, home to a fairly large population. The Old Temple was built during the late Initial Period and it was the â€Å"center of supernatural power and authority.† It was a U-shaped platform opening to the east with a circular courtyard in the center. The Old Temple also consisted of numerous passageways and chambers underground called galleries. These galleries were used for storage chambers, religious rites, and possibly temporary or permanent living for small groups working with temple activities. The Lanzon Gallery is located at the very center of the Old Temple. It was where the sculpture of the Lanzon was found. The Lanzon, the supreme deity of Chavin de Huantar, is anthropomorphic. With its feline head and human body, it has intertwined the feline deity of Chavin de Huantar and the shaman of the pre-Chavin period. For the pre-Chavin period, the object of worship was the feline, but this was gradually changed. By the time of Chavin de Huantar, it was anthropomorphic. During this time, it was believed that priests could become jaguars and interact with the supernatural forces. This was achieved by taking hallucinogenic drugs as part of rituals at the Old Temple. There are many sculptures that decorate the Old Temple depicting the transformation of the priests. There have been mortars, pestles, conch-shell trumpets, and many other items with anthropomorphic design found and thought to be associated with Chavin rituals. The New Temple â€Å"forms a continuum† with the Old Temple. The same belief system continues and there is evidence of the same rituals. The New Temple also has galleries and plazas. The Lanzon, although in a different stance, continues to be a symbol of mediation and harmony. The right hand of the deity holds a Strombus shell, for male forces, and the left hand holds a Spondylus shell, for the female forces. The New Temple, however, did not replace the Old Temple.

Listening to Music Essay

Today stress is a factor that we have to learn living with, manipulating it to benefit us thereby preventing the development of depression and stress related diseases. This can be attributed to globalization which although it has greatly improved our lives and made our activities simpler it has also introduced negative aspects that lead to the development of stress. For instance programs and advertisements aired on our televisions are filled with violence which is viewed as eye catching and therefore tolerable. However, the violence has natured aggressive attitudes in children that are emanated in form of delinquent behavior in their teen lives thus developing stress from the prejudice and seclusion they receive from the community. Their parents too suffer from stress because of worrying about the safety and attitudes of their children. The community is also stressed by the menace of these teenagers. Many of you may be asking how stress can be managed especially with the little time that we have for ourselves, because most of our time is consumed by education and work. Worry no more because I have a solution that is easy to adapt to, access, simple to use and thus demands little effort from us; listening to music. My interest for music begun from childhood, whenever I was moody or angry I would lock myself in my room, turn the volume of my radio full blast and enjoy the tune of the music. Well this did not last for long because as you have all guessed I had to turn off the radio, orders from my parents, but the short period that I listened to the music did wonders because my anger subsided leaving me in a calm state. I can also attribute my success to music since while listening to its beats my concentration increases and thus develop ideas that will be beneficial to my life or solutions to problems that were disturbing me. Therefore, I am able to manage stress and its attributes (Chekitan & Schultz, 2005). Conducted research and studies have shown that music as a product is customer oriented because it portrays many benefits into our lives and acts as solutions to some of the demises that we suffer from. For instance today medical practitioners are using music to treat cancer patients whose treatment methods are painful and thus the patients require a relaxation factor to withstand the pain. Music is also used to treat children suffering from Attention deficient diseases (ADD) because it gives them a sense of belonging and increases their concentration, pain management, promote patients movement in wards as they will be tempted to move by the beat of the music, calm down patients, lower blood pressure, boost immunity and ease muscle tension for both the patients and medical practitioners (Laermer & Simmons, 2007). Music also penetrates into the brain cells stimulating the development of a brain wave whose resonance is in accordance to the tempo of the music. Music that contains fast, sharp and strong beats increases the concentration of the listeners thereby increasing their focus and thinking capacity. On the other hand music that constitutes slow beats results to the development of a calm state which has meditative therapy on the listeners thus relaxing them. Moreover, the ability of the brain to create different types of wave resonance is long lasting thus helping to manage stress. This is because these different brain waves also produce positive impacts onto the other parts of our bodies, for instance relaxation decreases breathing rate and heartbeat rate therefore reducing the chances for development of a chronic disease such as cardiac arrest. In the process havoc stress related responses are curbed because a positive state of the mind is maintained as the listeners develop an optimistic attitude. Furthermore, depending on the tempo of the music the relaxation soothes listeners to sleep a condition that eliminates stress, depression and anxiety effects (Kotler & Keller, 2005). Music also helps to improve the performance of students in class because the prominence of its beats eliminates environmental factors which distract the attention of students causing them to occasionally fidget and increase their desire to stand up and move around. This is because the repetition of the music beat contributes to the relaxation of muscles which reduces the hyperactive nature of the students thus increasing their focus on what they are learning. Music has also proved to be beneficial while exercising. This is because music helps the exerciser to concentrate on what he is doing as all the external factors that may contribute to his distraction are eliminated. Also the relaxation effect that the music creates reduces the strain that the exerciser may feel thus increasing his exercising capacity. Music also arouses psycho motor sensations improving the exercisers motor coordination (Barlon, 2006). Furthermore, there are many types of music that can suit the desires of everybody whether old, young, professional, rich or poor. Music as a product provides a wide range of selection that can be used to achieve certain benefits. The ability of music presenting a choice to its listeners proves that it is market oriented this is because people can change the type of music they are listening to suit a particular occasion. For instance when lifting weights music that contains fast and sharp beats should be used to help the exerciser increase the tension of his muscles and thus comfortably lift his weights. Contrary to this if slow music is used the exercisers tends to get tired quickly because the weights feel heavier due to the relaxation effect of the slow music (Silk & Harvard Business School Press 2006). The price of music is cheap because the benefit it prevails outweighs its monetary value. Listening to music is therefore affordable because little money is contributed to access music and listening devices. However, this is only done once because one remains with the music and the equipment thus will not need to contribute more money if he wants to listen to the music again. Moreover, the attention and energy needed to access music is little and in fact it is perceived as one of the music benefits because it increases the concentration and focus of the music seeker. Furthermore, the time spent when purchasing music is so little because music is sold by many people therefore, it is not a rare commodity. Also music is well classified and thus one cannot waste a lot of time looking for the type of music he/she desires to listen to (Sandhusen, 2008). Music is easily accessible because it can be found everywhere and there are so many devices that have been developed to aid in the simplification of attaining and storing music. Music can now be found in stores, online, itunes, mp3 sharing, ipods, from the television and the radio among other places. Thus people can enjoy the benefits of music without waiting for long periods of time because music is not located in a distant place that one needs to travel to purchase it or needs to wait for its delivery (Barlon, 2006). Media agencies are also promoting the benefits of listening to music by educating and advising people to seek this mechanism especially when under stress. The exposure on the benefits attained from listening to music that the media has done has increased the attention of many who have resulted to the conduction of research and studies that prove my contention to be true. This has also led to the establishment of music therapy a discipline that has now gained popularity as it can be used in all industries whether administration or medical. Furthermore, information about music therapy can be easily accessed online where the process used to perform music therapy, the cost of attaining these services and the location where these institutions can be found is well expressed and is in a language that is easily understood. Furthermore, music can be perceived as a universal language because music is globally listened to therefore, each one of us acts as an advertising agent for music influencing other people to start listening to a particular type of music in an attempt of attaining the same benefits (Barlon, 2006). From the above it is quite clear that listening to music can prevent the occurrence of negative stress related attributes such as suicide attempts, heart failures, loneliness and the pessimistic attitude among others. Therefore, everybody should make listening to music their hobby or increase the time they dedicate to this precious life extender and health maintainer mechanism. However, we must remember that although the power of music is good and results to unimaginable wonders to attain this, one must intelligently choose the right type of music to listen to at a certain time or occasion and use effective measures for instance while exercising low volume of the music is required to prevent further distraction of exerciser. Therefore, I would encourage people to listen to music which is productive and whose meaning or concept can easily be understood. Word Count: 1499 Reference List Barlon, K. (2006). The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Presentation on Marketing Management, 1, 2–7. Chekitan, S. D. & Schultz, E. D. (2005). In the Mix: A Customer-Focused Approach Can Bring the Current Marketing Mix into the 21st Century. Marketing Management, 14(1). Kotler, P. & Keller, L. (2005). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Laermer, R. & Simmons, M. (2007). Punk Marketing. New York: Harper Collins. Sandhusen, R. (2008). Marketing. 4th Edition. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series. Silk, J. A. & Harvard Business School Press (2006). What is Marketing. Watertown, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Women of Marble - Cycladic Reclining Female Figures Free Essay Example, 1750 words

The positive space occupied by the object is indicative of the shape of a human female who is perhaps standing or lying somewhere straight with folded arms. The lines, horizontal and vertical are used to form the object giving different shapes to the body. Horizontal lines are used to form the shoulders, neck, torso, arms, knees and feet of the figure. However, the use of vertical lines suggests forming the shape of the legs and nose. The horizontal and vertical lines have been used in combination to form different shapes in the figure with curved lines showing thighs and legs. The texture of the statue gives the sense of hardness with slender features that seem to be delicate and fragile and would get broken if mishandled. On the whole, formal analysis of the reclining female figure shows that the figure is dull in colour, with geometrical shapes, curved, horizontal and vertical lines and hard but delicate texture (Hammel, 2011). The reclining female figure belongs to the Cycladic civilization that was famous for the collection of marble figures which people of this civilization used to make (Hammel, 2011). We will write a custom essay sample on Women of Marble - Cycladic Reclining Female Figures or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page