The Enhanced and the Unenhanced

Today’s essay was on the topic of improving the human race. The author Gregory Stock felt that in the future we will begin to choose exactly what our children will be like by having their embryos enhanced with better genes. We would decide on how our potential child would be, and the lab would alter the genes in order that the newly formed life would be exactly the way we want it to be. Altering our genes should potentially have the desired outcome of having an enhanced population. However, these enhancements for a “Superhuman” race have many thoughts to be considered.
Hitler was one person who desired to create a “Superhuman” race. I’m pretty sure that everyone remembers what happened. In his Mein Kampf , he discussed his racial views of eugenics, which is the encouraging of choosing who gets to reproduce. This meant that those people who had diseases and defects were discriminated against. Hitler even went so far as to pass laws that had those people sterilized, so that they could no longer pass off their genes. After Hitler’s movement, the only thing he created was racism and a tragedy.
Not only does trying to create a “Superhuman” race spawn racism, but certain defects may potentially come out more as a result instead. For every “Advancement”, there is also compensation elsewhere. For example, we have bred Thoroughbreds to run faster and weigh less. They certainly do run a lot faster than an average horse, but with the lighter build and frame they also break their legs more frequently than an average horse. This could mean that even though we make our child more mathematically advanced, they could be sacrificing in other areas, like maybe English. It is impossible that improvements can completely eliminate all possible defects.
Enhancing humans is first of all far more complicated than the author made it sound. In the essay the author mentioned cloning as one way of creating embryos. Well, it takes far more than just one embryo to finally to succeed in making a clone. Dolly the sheep is one example of a clone, and it took scientists 277 attempts to clone her. Not only is the whole cloning process vastly difficult, but altering the DNA is also very complicated. Some human traits are not controlled by just one gene, but several. Cloning and altering DNA is also not very practical since it is very costly, and it means that you are also killing potential life forms in the process of achieving the perfect child.
I do not agree with the concept of enhancing humans. Enhancing humans causes racism, discrimination, and destroys young life forms. I don’t think that humans are meant to be changed, and having defects causes competition amongst us. Competition gives us something to strive for in life, or a goal even. If I were to pick the child that I wanted, it would no longer be my child because it would not have my DNA. Therefore, no longer related to me, and it would no longer be as unique. Enhancing humans is a terrible idea, and I don’t think that we should do this in the future as the author suggests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Dogs Snarling Together

I thought this was an interesting essay. There are many aspects about trade that a person must take into account. Trade is not just an easy “Black and White” area. The textile are one of many areas that are affected by trade policies, and depending on what way we’re controlling trade, there are both positive and negative factors.
After reading the essay, I realized that there were pros and cons to the decisions made towards trade. America likes to have free trade, but when American industries suddenly start hurting due to imports this causes conflicts. As mentioned in the essay, past presidents such as Richard Nixon made deals with textiles in order to gain votes. The textile industry is a huge part of the Southwestern part of the U.S., so the fact that the textiles remain there is essential for some Southern communities. The textiles provide jobs, and when they close, people have a hard time making ends meet in that community. It is essential to keep business in the U.S., but it is also key to allow foreign trade as well.
However, even though it is important to keep some industry in the U.S. for jobs, there are other factors that must be considered when allowing imports into the U.S. For example, relations with other countries must be considered. When making this decision, restricting trade from one specific country could potentially result in hard feelings leading to say a war. Or if you allow too much trade from a country over another, the neglected country could become angered. In the essay, it mentioned that trade relations with Japan were temporarily altered so that they would not fall to the Communists. In some circumstances, increased foreign trade with specific countries can be beneficial.
Another factor that must be considered is that by spending money in a third world country allows the country to improve itself. More money could mean that sewers and plumbing, which we take for granted, could be built in those countries. The overall life of a country could potentially improve as well with increased foreign trade because it creates more jobs and brings in more money. Creating more jobs, does however unfortunately mean that “Sweatshops” could potentially come about employing children. Having these children work has both good and bad results. The positive being that the children will be off the streets, but the negative could mean that they are potentially overworked. Buying the exports from countries increases their gain, and has some good effects.
Imports are a very touchy issue as the essay discussed. The pros and cons of trade are infinite as well as the results. Importing goods means that we are supporting another country which provides them with more money for improvements. Not only are we allowing other countries to improve, we are also strengthening relationships. On the other end of the spectrum, importing goods does mean that we are not keeping our money in the U.S. for our own improvements. I guess this continuous issue will never be resolved, and depending on each point in time the amount of imports will change depending on both U.S. and foreign needs.

I thought that today’s essay was a very intriguing read. I have never really investigated what Buddhism is about, but I still feel somewhat confused with what goes on in this belief. The concept talking about the “Selflessness” is a difficult idea for me to grasp. Despite some misunderstandings, I did however think that there were several thoughts in the essay that I could relate to.
One of the passages that I enjoyed the most was where Thurman was talking about finding your true inner self. The belief of finding yourself in most cultures is when you figure out what you stand for and what your beliefs are, but this is sort of opposite of the Buddhist belief. What Thurman thought about finding your “Self”, was that this is the realization of how your environment affects you. For example, he said “You will discover that you are part of the infinite web of interconnectedness with all other beings.” This to me is contrary to how I feel your inner “Self “, should be. Being connected to others to me means that you are following others paths, or tagging along with the “crowd”. I also don’t feel that I’m connected to everything around me because I probably don’t have a direct affect on most things. The things and people that I do affect the most are probably the ones I come in contact with most frequently, so I more than likely don’t have a direct affect on what is going on in Antarctica.
The one part that I thought was accurate was the mention of feeling alienated from others. Buddha said that when you believe in your rigid “Self”, you would feel separate and unique from others. I think that everyone should feel this way at times because of who they are and what they believe. I feel like this sometimes because of the beliefs that I hold. For example, when I was in high school I frequently felt isolated from a lot of my classmates because I didn’t drink, so I instead stayed at home and did homework. I don’t necessarily think that feeling isolated from others for reasons such as these is such a horrible thing. However, these feelings of alienation are posed as being the opposite of what is desired.
For the most part, I didn’t agree with the essay. The views that were displayed throughout the entirety of the essay were the opposite of what I think they should be. I think that finding your inner self should be more about figuring out what your stances on life are, and not how you’re connected to everything around you. Not only is it important to know who you are, but holding firm to your beliefs is the other aspect of being yourself. For me, my beliefs are the most important aspect that I possess, and that is what makes me “me”.