"It's a busy morning in the cloning laboratory of the big-city hospital. As always, the list of patients seeking the lab's services is a long one--and, as always, it's a varied one. Over here are the Midwestern parents who have flown in specially to see if the lab can make them an exact copy of their six-year-old daughter, recently found to be suffering from leukemia so aggressive that only a bone marrow transplant can save her. . . . In nine months, the parents, who face the very likely prospect of losing the one daughter they have, could find themselves raising two of her--the second created expressively to keep the first alive" (Kluger p. 67).
This is just one of the many scenarios people are imagining after the successful cloning--manipulating a cell from an animal so that it grows into an exact duplicate of that animal--of the sheep, Dolly. It is not the first time that cloning a mammal has been accomplished; however, it is the first time that a mammal has been cloned from an adult cell, not an embryonic one (Nash). The new cloning technique is raising many questions, the most controversial being the possibility of human cloning. Scientists say that, theoretically, the process used to clone Dolly would work for humans as well (Herbert). However, the cloning of humans should be regulated because of ethical, moral and religious issues.
On March 4, 1997, President Clinton temporarily banned federally funded research for human cloning in the U.S., and gave the National Bioethics Advisory Commission 90 days to report on whether human cloning should be banned or regulated ("Clinton Bans. . ."). In June, the Advisory Commission recommended that Congress impose a five year ban on human cloning (Rosenblatt). President Clinton ...
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...n. "The World After Cloning." U.S. News and World Report . March 10, 1997. pp. 59-63.
Kluger, Jeffrey. "Will We Follow the Sheep?" Time . March 10, 1997. pp. 67-72.
Nash, Madeline. "The Age of Cloning." Time . March 10, 1997. pp. 62-65.
Rosenblatt, Robert A. "Commission Seeks Ban on Human Cloning." [On-line]. Available: http://www.seattletimes.com/sbin/iarecord?NS-search-set=/34750/aaaa003ww75055e&NS-doc-offset=9& Search: Internet Cloning. May 18, 1997.
Woodward, Kenneth L. "Today the Sheep. . ." Newsweek
"Clinton Bans Federal Funding for Human Cloning." [On-line]. Available: http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/special/clone/clone.10.html Search: Internet Cloning. March 4, 1997.
"Clinton Endorses Proposed Ban on Human Cloning." [On-line]. Available: http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/special/clone/clone.24.html Search: Internet Cloning. June 9, 1997.
...eory censorship thus prevents students from thinking. There are ways of teaching our children morals, but censorship is not one of them. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Every burned book enlightens the world."
...from the other side of this argument is the fact that profanity and sexually explicit material shouldn’t be exposed to young children without their parental permission. But telling teenagers and young adults who are mature enough to choose what they want to listen to is completely wrong and unjust. The key word here is choice. As stated earlier, the thing that makes this country truly great is the idea that we have the right to listen to whatever we choose we want to listen to, not what a censor thinks you should be exposed to, it’s ridiculous.
Issues of censorship in public schools are contests between the exercise of discretion and the exercise of a Constitutional right. The law must reconcile conflicting claims of liberty and authority, as expressed by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 1940 in “Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries” by Herbert N. Foerstel (23).
There are numerous problems involving alcohol in the world today, including alcoholism, drunk driving, and alcohol poisoning leading to death. Many of these problems involve minors and are linked to drinking underage. The legal drinking age in many states is twenty-one years old. The purpose of this law is to keep minors out of danger: away from drunk driving, alcohol poisoning, and injuring the brain before it is fully developed. The government supports the belief that people are not ready or responsible enough for alcohol until this age. However, various professors and researchers are discovering ways to disprove this belief. These people think that reducing the drinking age to eighteen would influence our country in a positive way. Not only do minors support this idea, but there are numerous people and organizations that support the idea of lowering the drinking age as well. The current drinking law is counterproductive in our society because it’s not effective in eliminating underage drinking, and leads to unsafe situations such as drunk driving and alcohol poison instigated deaths. This problem could be solved by lowering the minimum drinking age to eighteen, with a drinking license.
Many people believe the most precious constitutional right is the first amendment. People may censor due to content that is considered to be too violent, or obscene, or even the language may be too vulgar. There are many reasons given for censorship in a classroom or library, a book or other learning resource may be restricted or banned because it includes social, political, or religious views believed to be “inappropriate or “threatening.” In the classroom or in the schools, the teachers or the administrators are the determining factor on what’s appropriate. In a community there are other certain people that look over textbooks, movies, and other published sources. On a federal or higher level sometimes it’s the legislators. The basic right to freedom of expression in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the constitution. In 1791, the bill of rights was the base of basic rights for citizens 4 years after signing of the constitution. There was controversy over to include the Bill of Rights when the United States was founded. One of the rights the Bill of Rights protects is freedom of spee...
Despite offering many solutions to the ongoing problem of underage drinking, there seems to be no chance for a law to pass that will lower the drinking age. Pete Coors of Coors Brewing Co. ran for senator in the Colorado election and campaigned that he was not pushing to lower the drinking age, however many of his quotes are not consistent with this point of view. No matter what the ultimate decision is for the drinking age, fake IDs and parents who condone drinking are going to cancel out any legitimacy for this law to work. Furthermore there are many drugs in testing now that may perhaps eliminate any of the dangers that are common with drinking. Due to liquor companies targeting teens to make a larger profit, it is inevitable that a younger generation will begin to consume alcohol earlier than with generations before.
Censorship is “the restriction or removal of information, or the prevention of free expression” (Taylor 8). There are many things that can be censored such as books, movies, TV shows, newspapers, and the way people dress. People censor things for a number of reasons- they do not agree with it, find it offensive, or think that it is just inappropriate in general. Different people consider different things inappropriate, so the content of what is censored varies. Anyone can censor, including parents, teachers, school officials, and board members (Taylor 8-10) Many things are censored in schools and places where children are present because parents do not want their kids to be exposed to inappropriate content (Taylor 10). Students are entitled to their First Amendment rights just as much as adults are, but schools still censor things like newspapers, books, and clothing.
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
Primarily, the drinking age should be lowered to teach responsibility and safety in young adults. The idea seems paradoxical; however, the high drinking age that is present in the U.S. today has only pushed underage drinking underground (Balko 458). In fact, America has the highest minimum drinking age in the world (Balko 459). Even though the American drinking age remains high, America still remains with an astonishingly large number of alcohol-related accidents and deaths. Is this statement a coincidence? Throughout the years alcohol has become more and more of an issue in young adults, but the correct actions are not taking place. If alcohol were to legally be put in the hands of Americans eighteen and above, these individuals would likely be forced to learn a sense of safety and responsibility. As stated by Caryn Sul...
Stephens, Patrick. ?Human Cloning is Good for All of Us,? The Objectivist Center. April 3, 2001.
Kolata, Gina. "Scientist Urge Senators Not to Rush to Ban Human Cloning." The New York Times March 13, 1997.
This article emphasizes the point that censors go too far when they attempt to not only ban a book for their own children but want to remove it altogether from a school library, so that other students cannot read it.
... censoring books, music, and television. Although parents may argue that these all need to be censored for the sake of their children, they are missing the fact that they have already been exposed to these types of things before. Even though books are being banned because they are controversial it is only depriving children of valuable lessons. Books also provide the youth with different ideas and can help them realize that variation in ideas is important. Censorship and music have often been debated as well, but music is everywhere censored and uncensored, so chances are children are going to hear songs that are “inappropriate.” Lasty, television is something that is censored all the time, when parents should decide what is censored and what is not censored. In conclusion, censorship is something that is becoming the topic of parents and children all over America.
George J. Annas, “Why We Should Ban Human Cloning,” The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 339, no. 2 (July 9, 1998), pp. 118-125.
Censorship is an important and essential part of television. Without the presence of censorship television would be unsuitable for our younger viewers because censorship helps to filter out the appearances of nudity, real life violence, the use of profanity and other obscene gestures during the youth viewing hours. However, during the prime time viewing hours it?s a different story. The method the television stations use is a mere waste of time and money because a little symbol in the corner of the screen is not going to prevent a child from watching the program. The only way this method can work is if the parents/guardian is there to change the channel but let?s be realistic, how many parents/guardians actuarially have the time to monitor everything there children watch. So most children do end up viewing these programs anyway, and whether we like it o...