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Cloning: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01027-z What's the issue? The main issue here is the fact that the monkeys were cloned from previous monkeys. This causes an issue as if this technology is continued, human cloning could become a thing, which raises many ethical questions. Why should scientists purse it? Why should they not? Scientists should pursue this topic as If they improve their technique, they could then efficiently make clones of different animals, or humans. This could allow for transplants to become a lot easier, and faster as doctors could have cloned body parts ready that match the patient. Of course this also means that there are certain ethical questions that need to be addressed. If human cloning becomes common, and they have a 100% match with their original counterparts, then they will have functioning brains. This means that you can't just take a heart for example from them as it would kill them. They would have a consciousness and wou...
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On what basis did you make your decisions?  What part of the questions did you find particularly difficult or particularly easy?  What did you learn or have reinforced for you regarding how you make ethical decisions? First, I got a moral parsimony score of 58%. This was because there were questions at the start that didn't follow all my moral ideas. Additionally, it could have been due to one of the bases.  I based my answers on multiple different factors. First, I made sure to not have a certain favoritism to people in certain different geographical locations. Second, unconsciously I showed direct favoritism to people in my family. In fact, I got a moral parsimony score of 17% on this aspect, which significantly lowered my overall moral parsimony score. Next, I unconsciously believed that acting and omitting aren't that different in the situations that they gave us meaning that I had quite a high moral parsimony score in that rega...
There has always been a big debate about art and whether or not any ethical considerations should limit artists in their scope of inquiry. Recently on March 31st 2017, a Netflix original called 13 reasons why sparked the internet with controversy, argument, and debate due to it's subject. This teen drama is about a high-school student named Hannah Baker who suicides and leaves 13 tapes to 13 different people. Each of these people had 1 tape dedicated to them, which they all heard. As the tapes continue, we go through the days/weeks before her suicide and all the events that led her to this.  Almost immediately, suicide prevention experts were concerned people would suicide and follow this path. In July a research published at JAMA Internal Medicine showed that people searched about suicide almost 20% more in 19 days and 900,000 to 1.5 million more searches than normal. Of course this sparked a lot of controversy and debate. In fact, Netflix almost had to pull the show off, and ban...
Do we really know what goes on in our head? Many people feel like they can control their emotions well as they think that their experiences are sufficient to know about what a good and bad decision is. Throughout our lifetime we experience many different things and the original experience plays a big part in future experiences, and the decisions we make. Many people don't realize this as most of our decisions to this are subconscious until they are obviously shown. The person who wrote this gave a very good example. She had a 'gross foods party' for her daughter's 12th birthday party. She served normal food, and drink such as pizza, and juice except that she smeared cheese with green fruit coloring, giving it a moldy look. The juice was also served in urine sample cups. She even served mashed food onto baby diapers for an extra stimulation. Even though the children were supposed to like pizza, mashed potatoes and juice (as that is the normal reaction). Many kids di...
The somatic marker theory, originally proposed by Antoni Damasio suggests that the way we process emotions and feelings can give us a subconscious bias to change our actions, affecting our social behavior. He was a neuroscientist and based this theory off actual parts of our brain. We all have things called 'somatic markers', which are body signals sent from our brain such as a rapid heartbeat, which allow us to process emotions clearly. 
Try to define as precisely as possible these words: a. triangle, b. love, c. table What is the difference? Which was easiest to define?  A.) A triangle is an area with three sides joined together to form what we call shapes. B.) Love is a mix of different emotional states, which are all experienced with strong, positive responses.  C.)  A table is a piece of furniture with one leg or more, connected to a top.  I think love was the hardest term to define as it is a very subjective term. Many people define love differently. Some people think that love doesn't exist while others think it does. Some people tend to think of it in more of a scientific viewpoint while others don't. Unlike a triangle, and a table there is no one 'right' answer for what love is. Everyone knows the concept of a table, and a rough idea of what a table looks like. We cannot say the same thing for love. In fact, another thing that makes love harder to define is infatuation. Man...
Eyewitnesses: First-order knowledge claims: Over 70 percent of false convictions that have been overturned through DNA testing involved eyewitnesses who falsely chose a suspect, leading to the prosecution of the suspect. Eyewitness misidentification is the single biggest contributor to wrongful convictions. Certain measures can be taken to help make eyewitness accounts more accurate. Larger police departments have an easier time than smaller ones in incorporating many of their proposed reforms. Two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have prohibited life sentences for minors without the possibility of parole. Second-order knowledge claims: If the police reformed their system, then the prosecuting process would be a lot more fair, and would help reduce the number of innocents going to jail due to false eyewitnesses. We can be certain that faulty eyewitness testimonies are very common, and lead to many unfair prosecutions. It is certain that eyewitness testimonies ...