Terri Schiavo Class

In our G&T class we were discussing the case of terri schiavo and this is a summary of the case.In 1990 through 2005 a women named Terri Schiavo lasped into a coma. It started on febuary 25th when she collapsed on the floor of her home in full cardiac arrest. She suffered massive brain damage from lack of oxygen, and after being in a coma for about two and a half months her condition or diagnosis was elevated to vegitative state. There were various experimental therapies attempted in the next two years on her by doctors hoping to return terri to a state of awarness. Eight years after she fell into the coma, in 1998 Micheal Schiavo petition the court to remove her feeding tube according to the Florida Statutes section 765.401. Terri's parents didn't approve of this petition and opposed him. The base of their argument to keep her alive was that she was conscious. In the next couple of years the court favored Mr. Schiavo's side of the argument and removed her feeding tube for the first time on April 24th, 2001 for a few days and then reinserted again. On Febuary 25th, 2005 her feeding tube was removed, but put back in a few days later. However, on March 18th 2005 the feeding tube was permanately removed and she died on March 31.

I do believe that the removal of the feeding was justified, because she wasn't going to ever wake up from coma based on what doctors said. she went through various experimental therapies, and she didn't respond to the therapies performed on her. These therapies were supposed to raise her mental awareness, but since she did not respond to them in the slightest way, we can assume that she had no mental awareness at all. Also 15 years is a lot of time, and if she didn't wake up from the coma already, there is a very slim chance she will ever wake up at all, she would have most likely stayed in her vegetative state till she died and started decomposing. she was wasting medical equiptment, and a lot of money. Also her legal guardian (her husband) said that she would have wanted him to pull the plug. That is why i think that the removal of the feeding tube was justified.



   

Contraversial Issues

Natural Reproduction

9.Cloning: The creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another.

3.Carrier testing: Genetic tests of parents that show the risk of passing on a genetic disorder

8.Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Non-deleterious Traits: Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish. Embryos are screened for genes of non-deleterious traits (such as hair color, height, sex).  Those with desired genes are inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in a doctor’s office.

6.Artificial Insemination: Insertion of sperm into female reproductive tract by syringe in a doctor’s office

7.In Vitro Fertilization: Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish.  Viable embryos are chosen and inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in a doctor’s office.

5.Prenatal testing: genetic screening of fetus for genes that cause disorders

8.Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Diseases: Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish. Embryos are screened for a certain genetic disorder.  Those without the defective gene are inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in a doctor’s office.

4.Fertility drugs: Prescription drugs which increase a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant

This is a list of some controvertial issues in our society. The issue that i think is the most controvertial is a 9 and the least is obviously a 2. I think that cloning is the most controvertial issue because i think it would be creepy to have exact image of me walking around pretending to be me. What if he gets into trouble and blames me. The second most contravertial issue is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for diseases, because it is nasty, and it seems to me to be a wrong method. The third one Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Non-deleterious Traits is pretty bad, i listed it as an eight just the second one, because in my opinion they're both pretty nasty, and just seem wrong. The in vitro fertilization seems wrong to me thats its the fourth most contravertial, the method is pretty gross. The artificial insemination is the next most contravertial because it also seems gross, and just wrong, and unnatural. The next one isnt bad, it is Prenatal testing, it tells you what kind of disorders the kids have. The next one is fertility drugs which makes you more suceptible to have a baby.  The final one i think is carrier testing, which tests what kind of disorders your kid will have.

A review for Gattaca

This movie is set in a non too distant future where people genetically engineered. However not everyone is engineered and there are a handful of people who are conceived through natural  means. Our main character is named Vincent and he belongs to this group of "inferior people" as the other group of people call them. In the future there is no prejudice against race, religion, or skin tone. There is prejudice against peoples gene, and they segregate the people who are no genetically engineered who are called invalids from the people who are engineered who are called valids. The movie states that the whole point to the method of genetically engineering someone was to make sure that they would not have a chance to develop diseases like cancer or other harmful diseases.  However this method took a sort of greedy turn and people started engineering the way their kids would look and how their characteristics in life would be like. So this was bad idea: it caused strife mean, this was a bad movie in my opinion, but the plot was interesting.