Artificial Heart Devices
In its never ending pursuit of advancement, science has reached a crucial biotechnological plateau, the creation of artificial organs. Such a concept may seem easy to comprehend until one considers the vast knowledge required to provide a functional substitute for one of nature's creations. One then realizes the true immensity of this breakthrough. Since ancient times, humans have viewed the heart as more than just a physical part of the body. It has been thought the seat of the soul, the source of emotion, and the center of each individual's existence. For many years, doctors and researchers left the heart untouched because they thought it was too delicate, too crucial to withstand the rigors of surgery. However, the innate human desire to achieve brought about the invention of the artificial heart. The potential for such inventions are enormous. According to the American Heart Association, there are between 16,000 and 40,000 possible recipients of artificial heart devices under the age of sixty-five. If perfected, it would enable us to save thousands of human lives.
In considering the full impact of artificial heart devices on society, we must not narrow our thinking to include only the beneficial possibilities.
There exist moral, ethical, and economic factors that accompany these new innovations to humanity. Who will receive these brilliant inventions?
Obviously not all of the patients will get transplants, so selection criteria must be established. The high price of artificial heart devices and their implantation will eliminate some candidates. Unfortunately, this is not fair.
The rich, in essence, can buy life, whereas the poor are abandoned to die in a diseased state. A thorough analysis of the implications of the implantation of such devices reveals not only selection and economic consideration, but mortality and ethics as well. Many contest that it is simply wrong to tamper with the ways and creations of nature. By prolonging life through unnatural means were are defeating natures foremost tenet of the "survival of the fittest." We are preserving the weaker gene pools and contributing to the deterioration of the human species. These and other considerations play a vital role in determining the artificial transplants actual benefit to the contemporary world and the world of tomorrow. A...
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...evices for the heart will definitely have a great impact on society. This can be classified in two major ways: financial problems and population problems. Of course, increased use of artificial heart devices in medicine is going to increase the financial burden on society. The potential gains will be substantial when the lives of many productive individuals can be saved. The extent of the financial burden depends largely upon the number of patients who benefit from the artificial valve, the availability of the device, and improvements in its efficiency and dependability.
In the long run, worldwide utility of the artificial valve technology would increase the world population. Overpopulation is already the root of many of the world's crises.
The many debates concerning artificial heart implantation as a medical technique each have their own significance, and each deserves thorough consideration. Before we rush headlong into complete employment of the devices in medicine, we must evaluate the moral, social, ethical, arguments. Hopefully we can reach a decision that blends all of the aforementioned considerations into a harmonious existence, working to the maximum benefit of society.
Chua, John. "An overview of 'The Tell-Tale Heart,'." Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
This past summer, when I lived and worked in Washington, DC—first as a U.S. Senate Page and then as a Congressional Intern—I gained invaluable experience and insight to the American political system. It is amazing how much one can learn from simply overhearing the conversations of Members of Congress on a daily basis. Working on the floor of the Senate and then in the back rooms of a Congressional office were two entirely different experiences, each teaching me in a distinctive way about how our political system functions. While I most definitely became aware of how bureaucratic and slow our democratic system can be, I also discovered that with a commitment to unity and prosperity for the common good, great feats are attainable through government.
something else there, the mind, that interacts with our bodies and makes us feel, think,
After assessing both arguments, it is easy to see why the public views Congress as dysfunctional and not strong enough. Many say that the current Congress does not align with what the founding fathers would have wanted, but do not try and find a solution to the problem. While it is popular to have this belief, more individuals should be interested in why Congress is not as strong as they like.Through support from the public and American political system, it is very possible that Congress can become stronger than it ever has been.
With this background, I will go through Curtis Keim’s book, the Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the African Mind. While reading this book, I plan to explore my own biases as against what has been written in this book about Africa. The key words that come to my mind while thinking about Africa aren’t very different from those quoted by Curtis’s students. I too think of the place as the native world thanks to Darwin’s theory of evolution and subsequent research work that makes to textbooks and television program. However, it does not resonate with me as much a native land should. I believe that could be because of different physical features Africans have as compared to ordinary Americans. More so, we don’t know about the historical link as Africans moved out to rest of the world. The historical link between America and modern day Europe is well documented and studied. But, very little is known about such historical links between Africa and Europe. I believe it is because of thi...
Society today is split in many different ways: the smart and the dumb, the pretty and the ugly, the popular and the awkward, and of course the rich and the poor. This key difference has led to many areas of conflict among the population. The rich and the poor often have different views on issues, and have different problems within their lives. Moral decay and materialism are two issues prevalent among the wealthy, while things such as socio-economic class conflict and the American dream may be more important to those without money. Ethics and responsibilities are an area of thought for both classes, with noblesse oblige leaning more towards the wealthy.
Polarization has had measurable consequences on the American political system. First and foremost, congress has become an increasingly dysfunctional institution, becoming less capable of passing legislation on salient issues in the modern era (Binder 2015). These issues are exacerbated by the presence of new splits within parties themselves, such as the tea party caucus and later the freedom caucus within the Republican party. This has proved particularly interesting, because from a larger perspective it is not necessarily congruent with the insecure majorities hypothesis – these caucuses will not increase the odds of a majority in the congress. However, they do increase the voice and influence of the caucus in terms of intraparty
One of the reasons for congressional gridlock is gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is manipulating the boundaries to favor one’s party or class. Gerrymandering creates elected officials who have ideological extremes who use utmost legislative strategies that cause gridlock. Essentially, only citizens can stop gerrymandering and truly restore democratic elections, which is crucial for our democratic elections, including Congress. One solution to ending gridlock is to reduce gerrymandering. Reducing gerrymandering can be done by having commissions re-district after the decennial Census. Another cause of gridlock is the way our government is set up. Our government is unusually structured in a complicated way that combines all of these different concepts that prevent one branch of government from having too much say in certain policy matters and other important governmental decisions, such as law-making. This makes it nearly impossible to come to a legislation agreement in a decent amount of time. (Shep, 3) Gridlock is also caused by representative dynamics. Representative dynamics refers to times when each organization is advanced by someone else just to be in their favor. While other representatives are open to sitting down and working out problems, their constituents are discouraging them. This can be fixed by getting to the root cause of representatives leading in service of only their own interests rather than to follow their
the body. The notions and events that occur in the essay provoked emotional responses ranging
During Imperialistic times South Africa was a region of great resources that was greatly disputed over (Ellis). Europe’s main goal during these times was to compete against each other and played a “game” of which country can imperialize more African countries than the other. Imperialism was a curse to South Africa, because many wars, laws, and deaths were not necessary and would not have happened if South Africa were not imperialized.
While the idea of human tracking has its share of benefits, there certainly are numerous pitfalls that also exist. While the ability to identify someone with an ID tag may have practical uses, the security and privacy issues could seem potentially alarming to some. Not only that, a closer look may show that the technology doesn’t necessarily offer very many advantages when considering the costs of nation-wide adoption of the technology. This paper will try to investigate into these issues, whilst attempt to come up with some solutions.
The poor gets poorer, and the rich gets richer. Economically speaking, this is the truth about Capitalism. Numerous people agree that this inequality shows the greedy nature of humankind. The author of the source displays a capitalist perspective that encompasses an individualist approach towards an “un-ideal” economic system. The source articulates a prominent idea that capitalism is far from perfect. The reality is, as long as capitalism exists, there are always those people who are too poor or too rich in the system. We do not need elitists in our society but that is exactly what capitalists are. In this society, people are in clash with those who “have” and those who “have not”, which creates conflict and competition. Throughout
Van, B. S. D., & University of Pittsburgh. (1995). Post-passage politics: Bicameral resolution in Congress. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 6th edition http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text idx?idno=31735057897302;view=toc;c=pittpress
Gans (1971) stated in modern society there are few events that can be considered functional or dysfunctional for society, and that most events result in benefits to some groups, while they present a cost to other groups. Poverty provides a great example of the negative impact on one group of society while providing benefits to another group in society. “All human endeavors have benefits and costs, material and nonmaterial, and that most such endeavors produce benefits for some people and groups and reparations for others. Even some of the most costly social evils benefit someone” (Gans, 2012). Poverty provides numerous benefits for the wealthy. However, the poor can also benefit from the wealthy.
wanting to give more than what they have. moral character of the rich and the poor and