No Cloning! essays

No Cloning! essays On February 24, 1997, the world was shocked and fascinated by the announcement of Ian Wilmut and his colleagues. A press release stated that they had successfully cloned a sheep from a single cell of an adult sheep. Since then, cloning has become one of the most controversial and widely discussed topics. The issue that gets the greatest focus is human cloning, and there has been an onslaught of protests and people lobbying for a ban on it. However, there is a real danger that prohibitions on cloning will open the door to inappropriate restrictions on accepted medical and genetic practices. Therefore, the banning of cloning is unjust. The most popular objection to human cloning is the assumption that science would be playing God if it were to create human clones. This argument refuses to accept the advantage of biological processes and to view the changes of the world. Religious objections were once raised at the prospects of autopsies, anesthesia, artificial insemination, organ trans plants, and other acts that seemed to be tampering with divine will. Yet enormous benefits have been gathered by each of these innovations, and they have become a part of human ¡s daily life. The issue of playing God has already arisen when a doctor selects a patient on a waiting list for transplant and leaves others to die, and when the doctor puts their patient under life support whenever they are in coma or they are near death. The moral issue of cloning is similar to the past issue faced by the society such as nuclear energy, recombinant DNA, and the computer encryption. There have always been religious and moral objections to new technologies and changes merely because they are different and unknown to humans. The public not only worries about science playing God, but also fears that the cloned child ¡s autonomy and individuality will be reduced because it will have the same DNA as another person. One of the more eloquently stated fears about the loss ...

Dealing With Homesickness at Boarding School

Dealing With Homesickness at Boarding School Any parent who has seen their child go off to boarding school, or even college, has likely experienced that dreaded phone call home. I miss you. I want to come home. Homesickness is a natural, albeit challenging, reaction to being away from home for the first time. Unfortunately, there are no quick cures for homesickness, a feeling all of us encounter at some point or another. If your child is going off to boarding school, homesickness is bound to be something he or she has to deal with too. Going off to boarding school is what the professionals call a planned separation. Reassure your child by explaining that those feelings of missing familiar surroundings and family are perfectly normal. Tell them about the times when you felt homesick and how you dealt with it. Need more advice? Check out these four tips. Dont Allow Your Child to Call You Constantly This is a tough thing for a parent to do. But you have to firmly lay down the ground rules for calling you. You also need to resist the temptation to call and check in on your child every hour. Establish a regular time for a 15-minute chat and stick to it. The school will have rules about when and where students can use cell phones. Encourage Your Child to Make New Friends Your childs advisor and dorm master will help them meet older students who will take them under their wings, helping them to quickly make lots of new friends; if you give him or her some room to do so. Remember, the school has dealt with homesick children for years. It will have a plan in place to keep your child so busy that he or she probably wont have time to be homesick, especially in the first few days or weeks. Sports, all sorts of clubs and plenty of homework fill up most days. Dorm mates will soon become fast friends and it wont be long before you call at the appointed time and are told that he or she only has a minute before the swim club meets. Dont Be a Helicopter Parent Of course, you are there for your child, but he or she needs to learn quickly that it is necessary to adjust and cope. Thats what life is about. Your child has to make decisions and abide by the consequences of those decisions. He or she has to make choices independently and not rely on you, the parent, to provide guidance constantly. Your child will never develop good judgment if you make all the choices and decide everything for him or her. Resist the temptation to be an over-protective parent. The school will act as a parent and protect your child while in their care. That is their contractual responsibility. Understand That It Takes Time to Adjust Your child has to learn new daily routines and allow his or her biorhythms to adapt to the new, somewhat inflexible schedule of boarding school. Habits often take a month to develop and become second nature, so be patient and remind your child to stick with whatever challenges are arising. It will get better. Homesickness is typically a temporary phenomenon. It passes within a few days. If, however, it does not pass and your child is extremely unhappy to the point of despair, dont ignore it. Speak with the school and find out what they feel can be done.   Incidentally, this is one more reason why it is so important for you and your child to get the fit right. If a student is happy in his or her new surroundings, the feelings of homesickness will pass very quickly.