Genetic Engineering Essay, Research Paper
ABUSE
Many factors contribute to the definition of abuse as stated by law. They also make note of differences between adult and child abuse. When physical abuse refers to adults, it is divided into battery and spousal abuse, which may encompass other types of abuse. The five main types of abuse for children are physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect, and chemical dependency. Physical is the most commonly thought of abuse. For children physical abuse is commonly associated with over-discipline by the caregiver. The least reported is sexual abuse. The children are least likely to talk to others about the incident or recall the event later in life. Emotional abuse may be an isolated problem but is present in almost all other forms of abuse. It is characterized by speech disorders, developmental lags, or behavioral changes. Neglect is the failure to provide for the child s basic needs. It is the most difficult form of abuse to identify because it is mainly within the confines of the home. Chemical dependency deals with infants of substance abusing mothers who are born hooked. The most known situations are crack babies and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome patients.
As with child abuse, spousal abuse is a power issue. Spousal abuse is power issue. A man often dismisses spousal abuse only as battering of a woman. Spousal abuse is physical, mental, emotional, and sexual violence of one person in an intimate relationship to another.
They may be married, unmarried, or of the same sex. Men are just less likely to report it. Abuse can encompass many aspects: verbal assaults, withholding possessions, emotional or physical punishment, lack of concern for ones feelings. A reason for remaining in these bad relationships is co-dependency. They feel they are economically dependant on the other, the violence will increase if they leave, the situation may turn positive, they are at fault, and a variety of other reasons why they stay.
Abuse of both kinds takes place mainly within the confines of the family but affect all aspects of the community. The health care industry plays a direct part in physical abuse. Beatings are often so severe as to require medical attention. Doctors, especially pediatricians, are responsible for noticing signs of possible physical abuse when treating relatively unimportant incidents. Society plays conflicting roles in abuse cases. Some may choose to ignore the occurrences and allow it to continue. Unreported abusers may move on to abuse many others. Some religious authorities push staying in a marriage at all cost. Society looks down on divorce and single parenting. On the other side abuse affects society in positive ways. It can pull communities together against the abusers, especially child abusers. The abused can pull together to help one another and form support groups and shelters. This increases the chances of a person leaving the situation.
HIV/AIDS
Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a blood related and sexually transmitted disease that affects men/women, adult/child, and heterosexual/homosexual alike. Children acquire HIV from infected blood transfusions and during the first stages of life. One quarter of the latter receive the virus in the womb. HIV can also be passed through the breast milk. To contract the disease any other way there must be person-to-person contact through an open wound, sharing drug needles, or sexual contact; the disease dies in open air or in a nonhuman host. The HIV disease requires the human immune T cells to reproduce. It takes over the human immune system to produce more of itself; one human cell allows the virus to replicate using the cell s components until the cell is drained and it dies. The infected person does not die of the virus; death comes on part of the opportunistic infections due to the impaired immune system.
Within the health care industry, HIV/AIDS gives many people goals to work towards. It must focus on prevention, treatment, and finding a cure for the disease. The disease poses a direct threat to anyone actively involved in treating an HIV/AIDS patient. Blood donations and transfusions must be monitored. Insurance companies don t offer the same benefits for infected persons, which usually infers more out of pocket payments. The workplace cannot discriminate in hiring under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The business must give modification of a job to accommodate the person where they do not pose a risk. Some workplaces have higher risks of transmission, such as in the medical community, than others. If there is a problem with HIV/AIDS in Houma, it is not talked about. I know no one who confesses of having the disease. There is a boost of safer sex methods than in the past. People are worried about acquiring the disease with the symptoms and consequences widely known.
Research using fetuses, regardless of the source,
should be an accepted practice.
Those who are for the use of aborted fetuses describe all of the benefits the fetal cells could offer. The need for fetal research is on the basis that animal studies alone do not work to predict and cure all diseases. Fetal stem cells can cure many diseases and may grow new organs. Alzheimer s diabetes, Parkinson s, and some forms of cancer are just a few diseases that might be treated with fetal cells. Adding research using the non-viable fetuses also has benefits over adult cell donation. Fetal cells retrieve better results, for example fetal bone marrow is 23 times more effective than adult marrow and eight times more effective than umbilical cord cells. These aborted fetuses could be used to benefit society instead of being thrown out to waste.
Those who appose fetal research will point out the legal, ethical, and moral issues that support their ideas. Most people who take this stand are also pro-life; they believe that an embryo is alive at conception. The abortion and use of its cells without its consent is murder. As an example, a seven-month fetus has been shown to survive outside the mother s womb; therefore viable, but it can still be aborted just because it is not naturally born. Pro-life activists object to all aspects of fetal research because of the possibility of a live abortion, especially to keep the brain cells intact. Alternate forms of research could be implemented that are more ethical: the use of umbilical cord, placenta, and adult stem cells. Research has shown that not all fetal cells are effective. There have been no improvements, negative side effects or infections that the tissues have not learned how to fight.
Despite the all of the negative publicity that abortions have received, it is legal for abortions and partial birth abortions to occur. The fear is that the research using these murdered fetuses will be looked upon as positive to the point that it creates a market for some to make a profit. The selling of any tissues for profit is illegal by law, yet it still occurs. At this point in time the use of government funds for this type of research is prohibited. The research itself is not illegal; it must be privately funded. It was quoted that Important scientific work has always been controversial.
Genetic screening should be performed on individuals for the potential purpose of genetic bioengineering.
Genetic screening is the testing of genes for certain traits and is marketed as a type of family planning. A person could find out the probably of disease for four reasons: family history, to look for symptoms, if they are worried about passing on their genes, and the susceptibility of the disease. For prenatal screening they are to decide whether an abortion should be considered or how to prepare emotionally and physically for the coming of a diseased child. There is the possibility that intervention in extremely early cases can help dramatically or even cure the problem. Those in favor of genetic screening have disregarded the discriminations of having ones genes on display in a file. Profit oriented health care insurance would increase no matter what. Some argue that premiums could be higher if your screening was known. For those with defects, the premiums are going to increase regardless. Having ones genetic screening profile on file at the workplace would have nothing to do with discrimination because all personal files are confidential.
Those who oppose the screening process cite current ethical and legal issues. They feel that knowing the genetic makeup would give the option to alter the genes to choose favorable characteristics. This should not be performed because society would loose its diversity. Looking to nature, evolution has not created an Arian race and neither should we. Eventually evolution will improve the faulty genes on its own. Humans should not intrude; it would affect the entire makeup of future generations. Some also feel this genetic bioengineering could lead to cloning. They point to Clinton s National Bioethics Commission that in 1995 put three bills into Congress prohibiting the cloning of humans. Currently seven states in the U.S. ban cloning. In some countries cloning is legal, but in March 2000 the European Union opposed the patenting of body parts. These in opposition point to the technology as a downfall. The genetic bioengineering is done on computers; there is the possibility that hackers could obtain this information and use it for illegal purposes. As an example they question that even though we have the technology should we use it as we did the nuclear bomb.