Month: February 2020

We are in the year 2020 right now. Science and technology are moving at an extremely rapid pace. With the speed that it is moving at we don’t have enough time to stop and think if this is right. Dalai Lama Brings this up in his article he wrote called Ethics and the New Genetics. In this article he describes to us how If we change the genetic makeup of people numerous ethical questions arise from it and how with society respond to all of these issues. Too many questions arise from gene mutations that cannot be answered yet. 

Thesis: There are too many issues that arise from gene mutations related to ethics and Also accessibility. 

One thing that is great about this world is that it’s so diverse. There are many different cultures and habits people have that help make them unique in their own way. But then gene mutations get brought up. Everyone in this world wants to have “the perfect baby”. It’s understanding why people want that. The things that people love most are there children who they raise to be either great men or women. But what if gene mutation implications came into play? A lot of different people would want to make the perfect baby. In different cultures a lot of the perfect babies could turn out very similar to one another, and then another question arises: Where’s the diversity in society now? How can we be our own person if everyone’s genetic makeup is all so similar?

Although Not most scientists may think alike some may say gene editing is beneficial. They think that it could be very helpful in life to find diseases hidden in genes early and try and get rid of the bad gene. Also they believe that Gene editing can get rid of a hereditary disease when a baby is an embryo and not even close to being born. But then again this goes back to ethics. Why maybe try to edit genes in young people and embryos when they caould possibly find a cure for the particular disease in the up coming years. Also when the baby is an embryo there’s no consent of doing the editing and also we don’t know what the long term implications are. It’s all just too soon at this point we do not know enough about gene editing to be able to do it quite yet.

In this piece, the Dalai Lama talks about the relationship between science and ethics. In this piece, he explains to us how science has been advancing too fast and past what we find to be Ethical. He first goes on to talk about the genetic makeup and gene mutations in humans. gives us a variety of reasons as to why we shouldn’t genetically customize our babies, and why we shouldn’t gene test to see if we are positive for a specific genetic disease. Mostly during this part Dalai Lama brought up the fact that gene testing and genetically modify a person brings up a lot of ethical questions that seem to get overlooked. He also touches on the facts of cloning and what it could do to benefit humans in society. He did say that he’s not opposed to it but once again he brings up ethics, and this seems to be the main attraction of the paper. How can we make monumental scientific achievements, but at the same time make sure everything is within ethical reasoning.

Claim: In order for scientists to continue with scientific milestones they must educate the public on these milestones, and the pros and cons of each scientific discovery. The more educated the general population is on their scientific studies the more we can balance them with ethical reasoning in society.

Some of the weaknesses that were in my rough draft where I kept writing in the first person when this should have been a position paper. Also, my thesis was sorta weak and needed some improvements to make it stronger. Also, I was more nervous to elaborate on my anecdote but it wasn’t as strong as it could have been so I added more detail into it to improve it a lot more. A weak point int the final draft I feel is my bibliography. I had a hard time finding Anne’s citation and I could make one so I came up with one on the spot which is kind of iffy.

I think that overall the peer reviews worked really well. I believe that my groupmates made really great point on my paper that I could improve. I think that the sheet that was given to us before peer reviews really helped out and made this whole revisions process much easier.

In A New Civil Rights Kenji says, ” He told me his only advice for the coming years was that I should be more my self, that instead of reasoning within the law as it existed, I should speak my truth and make the law shape itself around me.” What Kenji is trying to say in this quote is that if you stay true to yourself and beliefs then you’re environment around you will respond to you in a positive way. I believe that it’s always great being honest with yourself with who you are and what you believe. If you’re not being honest with yourself are you really you? For someone to be at their full potential as a person then they need to accept themselves for who they are and try not to be someone that they are not. In the quote, I mentioned earlier he said if he speaks his truth then the law will shape around him. I relate that to a person being their true self then the world will shape around him. Meaning not everyone in this world will like you or agree with you, but stay being real with yourself and you’ll find the right people who you want to be with, and you’ll also enjoy the things that you are doing more.

I believe that you don’t always need a False self in order to succeed in life. Kenji says that the true self and the false self work side by side to help one another. He explains it by saying, “The true self and false self are symbiotic, Winnicott believes both selves will exist even in the healthy individual.” With this quote, he believes that they work with each other inside of a healthy individual. I believe that they do, but you don’t always need the false self to hide your true self. The false self Is what is supposed to help you initially. These are for things like your job interview, but once you pass through your job interviews you show your true self and have your co-workers except you fro who you are.

The only thing that belongs in the closet is your clothes. No person should stay hidden “in the closet”. You can’t flourish to be the person that you are, and you should never be scared to be you. You will find the people who love you for who you are and will be proud to be around you and spend time with you. also In a ted talk by Anne Hallward, she says, ” the thing about being in the closet is that you can see that it is very dark in there. And in that darkness, you can’t see very clearly.” Anne explains that in the closet you are more confused than when you just be yourself. You need to flourish and not be ashamed of you you are and express how you feel mentally and emotionally. to be happy with yourself you need to not be ashamed of who you are and be proud of the real you.

We all have something to be ashamed about, but that doesn’t mean being ashamed means you need to be scared to tell your story. Shame has such a negative effect on society, and in reality, you should see your shame as a positive. Everyone has a story and if one person shares there shame you may open the flood gates of shame. What I mean when I say that is telling a story of your shame creates a chain reaction of people opening up and expressing their shame. Anne Hallward told a story about how her dad had dementia and she just wished she died. When she shared her shame people opened up about their shame and during the talk she mentioned, “And the emails started coming in, saying thank you so much for saying that. I felt that way too about my mother but I felt so ashamed I didn’t tell anybody.” as you can see a lot of people have a lot in common and they just don’t know it. Shame is something that everyone has and when we express our shame people feel more comfortable expressing their own shame and turning a negative feeling into a comforting, positive feeling.

” Anne’s point is that if we keep exposing shame it will get weaker, and then make it not mean anything. ”
How is this line of thinking or perspective similar to Kenji’s take on covering? How are they different?
Nice annotations!

One example of Anne’s quote and Kenji quote being similar is this quote sounds a lot like a quote from The New Civil Rights. On page 542 Kenji says: ” A true self that must be expressed for us to have the feeling of being switched on, of being alive. And if the true self embodies the importance of authenticity”. How this quote relates to Anne’s idea of shame is you’re exposing shame and it gets weaker, and Kenji is saying if you show your true self you become more authentic. These two can relate because there’s positive reinforcement coming from both showing shame and showing true self. One way that they are different is that Kenji says that the true self works together with the false self to help protect the true self. When Anne is saying that hiding Shame can lead to not seeing clearly and you’re “in the closet”.

In the ted talk we watched on Wednesday by Anne Hallward we listen to her talk about shame. Specifically, we listen to her talk about shame and how it affects people and can be related to many different types of mental illnesses and even suicide. Anne’s main point during the ted talk was that shame should be talked about and dealt with head-on. I completely agree with that statement and we should talk about shame more. One example is during the talk she mentions that shame hide you from your feeling and keeps you “in the closet”. She then goes on and says, “but the thing about the closet is that you can’t see and it’s very dark in there. And in that darkness you can’t see very clearly.” In other words, Anne believes that you aren’t being the real you if you stay hidden in the closet and that you don’t think straight while you’re “in the closet”. Also, she uses an example of how to express shame and what it does. During the talk, she mentions how lesbian and gay couples are coming out of the closets now, and that mentions a lesbian couple who have been together for 72 years and are finally getting married. Anne says “And that, what that does, is it feeds right back to the sources of external shame and begins to reduce their power.” Anne’s point is that if we keep exposing shame it will get weaker, and then make it not mean anything.