Save The Internet Essays - Abuse, Child Pornography, Crimes

Save the Internet subject = English title = Save the Internet Did you know that 83.5% of the images available on the Internet were pornographic (Kershaw)? Did you know that pornography on the Internet is readily available to curious little children who happen to bump into them? Today, the Internet which has only become popular several years ago, is unequivocally one of the most revolutionary innovations in the computer world. The information superhighway has changed peoples' lives dramatically and have created many new exciting opportunities as well as markets to be exploited. But, unfortunately, the Internet also has created a haven for the depravity of pornography and hate literature. Therefore, this has called for immediate action and the only solution up to today is censorship. The Internet must be censored to the utmost. Many people complain that censorship is the violation of the first amendment and the suppression of freedom of speech but there is a point where freedom of speech becomes corrupt; freedom of speech only creates an excuse for the vile pornographers to poison our nation let alone our children. Pornography is regarded as immoral and downright filthy by the people. It denies human dignity and often stimulates the user to violent acts (Beahm 295). Therefore, pornography and violence are correlated. It trivializes the human beauty and converts it into commercialized slime (Beahm 295). Moreover, the consumption of pornography can lead to a detrimental addiction and the consumer can become a slave to it (Beahm 297). In short, pornography is a very addictive drug; which has an equal or more potency to hard-core drugs like heroin and cocaine. Can you imagine a ten year-old innocently surfing the Internet and suddenly bumps into a pornographic site depicting explicit images of naked women and becoming addicted to it? The damage is long-term and when the time comes, we will have a nation of perverts. Galbraith says, "The U.S. constitution does not forbid the protection of children from a pornographer's freedom of speech. That must be inferred through the First Amendment." These are our children and we have the right to protect them. The fact that pornography is damaging mentally is further aggravated as the availability of pornography to all Internet users is a major problem as well. The ridiculously easy accessibility to all types pornography; by anyone who logs into the Internet has raised a major concern from both the government and the public. The Internet, being the biggest interactive library ever existed, has no owner, President, chief operating officer or pope (Montoya). "Inevitably, being an uncontrolled system, means that the Internet will be subjected to subversive applications of some unscrupulous users." (Kershaw) Internet users can publish pornography and hate literature that information is literally made available to millions of Internet users worldwide (Kershaw). A five year-old can easily obtain pornography on the Internet by just typing the word "sex" in the search engine and literally hundreds of thousands of listing will appear on-screen, each leading to a smut page. This type of easy accessibility have people calling for censorship (Kershaw). "Most popular images available were of hardcore scenes featuring such acts as paedophilia, defection, bestiality and bondage." (Kershaw) According to Chidley, "In 1994, more than 450,000 pornographic images and text files were available to the Internet users around the world; that information had been accessed more than 6 million times." (58) This shocking figure is further agitated by the fact that pornography would be very harmful to the young unsuspecting child who happens to stumble on it while roaming about cyberspace (Kershaw). Remember, our children is our most important resource in the future; we have to refrain them from negative influences so that they could be good citizens of tomorrow. "Regulating the Internet might be the only way to protect Internet users including our children from accessing obscene pages." (Montoya) Singapore has taken an encouraging step to establish a "neighborhood police post" on the Internet to monitor and receive complaints of criminal activity-including the distribution of pornography (Chidley 58). They have also implemented proxy servers to partially filter our pornographic sites such as "Playboy" and "Penthouse" from access. An anonymous author quotes, "When such material is discovered, access providers could be alerted, and required to deny entry to the sites concerned." (Only) This is an ideal approach to censorship and should be exercised in every country. Parents at home can also be more responsible over what information is retrieved by their young ones by installing programs like SurfWatch that will block pornography from access (Quitter 45). In addition to this problem, child pornography also prevails over the Internet. Another distressing

Stem Cell Research †English Essay

Stem Cell Research – English Essay Free Online Research Papers Stem Cell Research English Essay Someone you love is suffering from juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, MS, ALS, certain forms of cancer, or even heart disease. The only hope of finding a cure for these serious diseases is through stem cell research. Would you support stem cell research? Should you support it? Is stem cell research right or wrong? Would you do everything possible to help this loved one whom is suffering every single day of his or her life? These are all diseases that have no cure and often worsen day by day. Stem cell research is the most promising way to finding cures for many of these diseases. What exactly is a stem cell? According to the Stem Cell Act, â€Å"stem cells are unspecialized cells that can develop into more mature, specialized cells. They are found in embryos during their first few days of development, in fetal tissue, and more rarely, in some adult organs. Scientists work with both embryonic and adult stem cells, but embryonic stem cells are the more promising because they are â€Å"pluripotent,† meaning that they have the potential to differentiate into tissue of almost any organ (brain, liver, heart, pancreas, etc.) of the human body. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, are merely â€Å"multipotent† meaning that they generate just a few tissue types, and are difficult to extract and grow, and many tissues cannot be derived from adult stem cells.† This is why stem cells are so important and why scientists think that they can find cures for diseases through stem cell research. What are embryonic stem cells, and why are they important? According to the National Institute of Health, â€Å"embryonic stem cells, as their name suggests, are derived form embryos. Specifically, embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro-in an in vitro fertilization clinic-and then donated for research purposes with informed consent of the donors. They are not derived from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body. They embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst. The blastocyst includes three structures: the trophoblast, which is the layer of cells that surrounds the blastocyst; the blastocoel, which is the hollow cavity inside the blastocyst; and the inner cell mass, which is a group of approximately 30 cells at one end of the blastocel.† Embryonic stem cells can be grown in the laboratory. According to the National Institute of Health, â€Å"growing cells in the laboratory is known as cell culture. Human embryonic stem cells are isolated by transferring the inner cell mass into a plastic laboratory culture dish that contains a nutrient broth known as culture medium. The cells divide and spread over the surface of the dish. The inner surface of the culture dish is typically coated with mouse embryonic skin cells that have been treated so they will not divide. This coating layer of cells is called a feeder layer. The reason for having the mouse cells in the bottom of the culture dish is to give the inner cell mass cells a sticky surface to which they can attach. Also, the feeder cells release nutrients into the culture medium. Recently, scientists have begun to devise ways of growing embryonic stem cells without the mouse feeder cells. This is a significant advancement because of the risk that viruses or othe r macromolecules in the mouse cells may be transmitted to the human cells. Over the course of several days, the cells of the inner cell mass proliferate and begin to crowd the culture dish. When this occurs they are removed gently and plated into several fresh dishes. The process of replating the cells is repeated many rimes and for many months, and is also called subculturing. Each cycle of subculturing the cells is referred to as a passage. After six months or more, the original 30 cells of the inner cell mass yield millions of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells that have proliferated in cell culture for six or more months without differentiating, are pluripotent, and appear genetically normal are referred to as an embryonic stem cell line.† What are adult stem cells? According to the National Institute of Health, â€Å"an adult stem cell is an undifferentiated cell found among differentiated cells in a tissue or organ, can renew itself, and can differentiate to yield the major specialized cell types of the tissue or organ. The primary roles of adult stem cells in a living organism are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. Some scientists now use the term somatic stem cell instead of adult stem cell. Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are defined by their origin (the inner cell mass of the blastocyst), the origin of adult stem cells in mature tissue is unknown.† Where are adult stem cells found and what do they do? According to the National Institute of Health, â€Å"adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and tissue. One important point to understand about adult stem cells is that there are a very small number of stem cells in each tissue. Stem cells are though to reside in a specific area of each tissue where they may remain quiescent (non-dividing) for many years until they are activated by disease or tissue injury. The adult tissues reported to contain stem cells include brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscle, skin and liver.† The National Institute of Health also states, â€Å"Research on adult stem cells has recently generated a great deal of excitement. Scientists have found adult stem cells in many more tissues than they once thought possible. This finding has led scientists to ask whether adult stem cells could be used for transplants. In fact, adult blood forming stem cells from bone marrow have been used in transplants for 30 years. Certain kinds of adult stem cells seem to have the ability to differentiate into a number of different cell types, given the right conditions. If this differentiation of adult stem cells can be controlled in the laboratory, these cells may become the basis of therapies for many serious common diseases.† There are many similarities and differences between embryonic and adult stem cells. According to the National Institute of Health, â€Å"human embryonic and adult stem cells each have advantages and disadvantages regarding potential use for cell-based regenerative therapies. Of course, adult and embryonic stem cells differ in the number and type of differentiated cells types they can become. Embryonic stem cells can become all cell types of the body because they are pluripotent. Adult stem cells are generally limited to differentiating into different cell types of their tissue of origin. However, some evidence suggests that adult stem cell plasticity may exist, increasing the number of cell types a given adult stem cell can become. Large numbers of embryonic stem cells can be relatively easily grown in culture, while adult stem cells are rare in mature tissues and methods for expanding their numbers in cell culture have not yet been worked out. This is an important distinctio n, as large numbers of cells are needed for stem cell replacement therapies.† Many people feel that stem cell research is ethically wrong, especially embryonic stem cell research. Many Americans feel that an embryo is a human being, and that it should be treated as one. The destruction of one life can not be justified by trying to save another life. The fact that a frozen embryo will eventually die does not justify killing it prematurely. Many people feel that letting them die is not the same as experimenting on them or killing them. Everyone eventually dies, but that does not justify experimenting on stem cell embryos which in turn will kill them. Although, people feel that experimenting on embryonic stem cells is ethically wrong, they need to look at the benefits that can come from these embryos. By studying embryonic stem cells scientists believe that they will be able to find cures for many diseases that affect people of all ages. Millions of Americans have abortions each and every day. Is abortion ethical? If people are going to be allowed to have abortions, then why not benefit from their choices. If they choose to kill their baby, then why not try to help others by using the embryonic stem cells. It is not like scientists are going to purposely kill embryos. By ending one life, millions and millions of lives can be saved or at least prolonged. It is very important to look at the benefits that can come from embryonic stem cell research, before making a rash decision. President Bush has agreed to government funding of stem cell research. Although, he feels that it is ethically wrong, he believes that by studying embryos that are already frozen and collected, scientists may be able to discover new cures and or treatments for many illnesses. Whether it is ethically right or wrong, many scientists are already experimenting on embryos through privately funded companies. No matter what they do people are not going to be able to stop scientists from experimenting on these embryos, so why not support them. Embryonic stem cell research is now legal in California, which means that many scientists across the nation will move to California to experiment on embryos. California has voted yes on a $3 billion fund for stem cell research. This means that government money will be used along with the privately funded money to pay for stem cell research, which will allow more advanced research. If it is legal in one state, why not allow it in every state. By supporting scientists and allowing them to use government money on stem cell research, we can increase the ability of these scientist to find cures for some of the most critical and crucial diseases. There are many different potential uses of human stem cells and many different obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized. According to the National Institute of Health, â€Å"there are many ways in which human stem cells can be used in basic research and in clinical research. However, there are many technical hurdles between the promise of stem cells and the realization of these uses, which will only be overcome by continued intensive stem cell research. Studies of human embryonic stem cells may yield information about the complex events that occur during human development. A primary goal of this work is to identify how undifferentiated stem cells become differentiated. Scientists know that turning genes on and off is central to this process. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A better understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of thes e processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy. A significant hurdle to this use and most uses of stem cells is that scientists do not yet fully understand the signals that turn specific genes on and off to influence the differentiation of the stem cell.† Although there are many different battles and obstacles that scientists face in stem cell research, it is the most promising way to cures. Embryonic stem cell research is thought of as unethical, but people should look at the whole picture when deciding whether or not to support it or if it should be allowed. Allowing stem cell research and supporting it would help and maybe even cure millions of people with serious illnesses. Although, there are other alternatives to embryonic stem cell research, it is thought to have the most promise. Embryonic and Adult stem cell research should be allowed as long as there are certain limits placed upon it. This helps in preventing any abuse of the research. Think of the lives that could be saved by this research, and say yes to stem cell research. Research Papers on Stem Cell Research - English EssayGenetic EngineeringInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesQuebec and CanadaBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfHip-Hop is ArtMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug Use

Compare and contrast paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Compare and contrast paper - Essay Example The Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) under Dr. Juan Bosch has been a long-standing opposition to the dictator Rafael Leonides Trujillo. When the latter was assassinated in 1961, Bosch was groomed to become the next leader of the country. He was inaugurated in 1963 but was overthrown in a military coup on September of the same year (state.gov). Joaquin Balaguer, Trujillo’s long-time top aide became president. It was during this time or after that Bosch separated from PRD and formed the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). It should be noted that both PRD and PLD were founded by the same person, Dr. Bosch. During the course of time, the PRD successfully raised three presidents. Antonio Guzman was its first president who defeated Joaquin Balaguer in 1978, Salvador Jorge Blanco in 1982 and Hipolito Mejia in 2000. The latter was soon to become the close political rival of Leonel Fernandez, PLD’s pride and the two parties that were originated by one person fought for power th rough political positions from then on. Both claim to consider the good of the nation and the people, however, their motives are still to be seen in their management of the government. Leonel Fernandez is perhaps the epitome of PLD’s vision. ... The proceeds from the sales were used by the government to improve municipal services and to fund education (Marxists.org). In 2004, he was elected again as president, defeating PRD’s Hipolito Mejia. This time, he promised to promote fiscal austerity, fight corruption and support social concerns. This is an ideal change that all Dominicans might have wanted had they been implemented for their welfare. However, there is quite an argument to this. It is claimed that the â€Å"fiscal austerity† means further attacks on most people’s standard of living. The people were not satisfied with Fernandez and he soon faced protesters against unemployment, price hikes and electricity blackouts that begun in 1997. These were coupled by strikes from the working class. Things were not different when Mejia was elected into office in 2000. He championed the cause of free trade, signing a free trade agreement (CAFTA-DR) with the United States and five Central American countries in August 2002. The government sponsored and obtained anti-trafficking and anti-money laundering legislation, sent troops to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom and ratified the article 98 agreement. Despite the actions taken for changes and improvement, difficulties presented themselves to the Mejia government because of massive bank frauds and constant power shortages (state.gov). Therefore, instead of progressing, the country’s economy deteriorated. This caused many strikes and protests during Mejia’s rein, ones that were worse than those that occurred during Fernandez’ term. The government used all means to pacify the people and stop the protests through military involvement.