Stem Cell Research- Reaction Paper

Stem Cell Research- Reaction Paper Reaction Paper: Stem Cell Research Heather A. Lail Liberty University Stem cell research has bought about heated debate since the time it was reviled. Many different debates have been raised to justify and unjustified the use of stem cells for research throughout the years. The two most enduring debates that have stood the test of time have been the legal and ethical issues. The has been documented in countless research studies the advantages of the use of stem cells for research regarding the two issues stated above.There are also countless articles documenting the disadvantages regarding the stated issues. I will discuss what a stem cell is, the different types of stem cells, and the advantages and disadvantages of both types. I will also discuss the two majorly debated issues, legal and ethical, as states above. A stem cell is fundamentally a blank cell that is capable of becoming another more differentiated cell type in the body and can be used to replace or even heal damaged tissues and cells in the body. Embryonic stem cells come from living, human embryos and can be harvested from two sources, embryos and fetuses.Embryonic stem cells are obtained by harvesting living embryos which are generally 5-7 days old. The removal of embryonic stem cells invariably results in the destruction of the embryo. Fetuses are another type of stem cell called an embryonic germ cell can be obtained from either miscarriages or aborted fetuses. Advantages of embryonic stem cells are that they appear to have the potential to make any cell, one embryonic cell line can potentially provide an endless supply of cells with define characteristics, and they are readily available due to in vitro fertilization clinics.Some disadvantages of embryonic stem cells is that they are difficult to differentiate uniformly and homogeneously into target tissue, embryonic stem cells from random donors are likely to be rejected by recipients, they are capable of fo rming or promoting tumor formation, and it is the destruction of a human life. Adult stem cells exist in humans and are used to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found. Adult stem cells come from umbilical cords, placentas, amniotic fluid, existing adult issues and cadavers.The advantages of adult stem cells include adult stem cells from bone marrow and from umbilical cord appear to be as flexible as embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells are already specialized to some extent, recipients receiving the cells are receiving their own cells which significantly reduces rejection of tissue, they are relatively easy to harvest, they do not tend to form tumors, and there is no harm to the donor. (National Institute of Health) The most prevalent legal concerns in terms of stem cell research are laws related to federal funding of the research.In August, 2001 President Bush announced that federal funds would be available to support limited human embryonic stem cell research. Th e fact White House fact sheet setting forth Bush’s policy states â€Å"federal funding will only be used for research on existing stem cell lines that were derived with the informed consent of the donors, from excess embryos created solely for reproductive purposes, and without any financial inducements to the donors†( Shimabukuro).With these limitations no federal funding is to be used for the derivation of stem cell lines derived from newly destroyed embryos, the creation of any human embryos for research purposes, or cloning of human embryos for any purposes. The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 â€Å"provides for the collection and maintenance of human cord blood stem cells for the treatment of patients and for research† (Shimabukuro).The Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 â€Å"amends the Public Health Service Act to make it unlawful for any person or entity involved or engages in interstate commerce to either solicit or knowingly acquire, receive, or accept a donation of human fetal tissues knowing that a pregnancy was deliberately initiated to provide such tissue, or knowingly acquire, receive, or accept tissue or cells obtained from a human embryo or fetus was gestated in the uterus of a nonhuman animal† (Shimabukuro).The above federal laws have been put in place in an attempt to alleviate some of the legal issues involved in the use of stem cells for the use of research purposes. The ethical issues debated by the masses regarding stem cell research include evaluating the benefits and harms of embryonic research and the value of the embryo. The benefits of stem cell research are the advances made in medicine in the aspects of somatic gene therapy for genetic disorders and the generation of replacement organs and tissues for transplant.The benefits of stem cell research are vast in the potential of curing certain ailments, disorders, and disease afflicting people. On the other hand of the ethical issue is the value of the embryo. Heated debate on this issue alone has been the mainstream since the first stem cell study was preformed. At one end of the spectrum is the belief that the embryo from the moment of conception is a person in its own right with the same moral status as an adult.On the other end of the spectrum there is an alternative stance that the embryo acquires full personhood and the moral rights by gradual stages during the process of development between conception and birth. (Rickard; Corrigan, Liddell, McMillan, Stewart, and Wallace) I personal hold to the belief that using embryos created and destroyed for the sake of research is wrong in every aspect due to my personal Christian beliefs. Jeremiah 1:4-5, â€Å"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations† (NIV).Psalm 127:3, â€Å"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from himâ⠂¬  (NIV). I also feel that even though there are potential benefits of stem cell research, the benefits are just that potential. I personal do not feel the means outweigh the risk.

Explain the changes in revenue and profit of your company that have Essay

Explain the changes in revenue and profit of your company that have occurred in recent years - Essay Example Based on the fact that the analysis serves the purpose of portraying financial health of a company, it means that we will focus on aspects of earnings. In this context, the two aspects which show earnings of an organization are revenue and profits. Paul and Krishna (2008) says that companies report earnings in terms of revenue and profit on a periodic basis. Through these earning reports, one can objectively know how much money a company makes, and predict corresponding amount of money that it will make in the foreseeable future. At this juncture, we will focus on a real company, ITV plc, which seeks to deliver growth through transformation of business strategies. ITV plc is a media company within the television broadcasting sector of communication industry. It deals with airing of news, advertisements and online broadcasting. In 2010, ITV adopted a transformation strategy meant to boost its financial status within a competitive business environment. This strategy strives to establis h a balanced performance in all subsectors of the company’s business, including TV studios, Pay and Interactive business and online broadcasting. ITV wants to reap heavily from increasing opportunities resulting from changes in consumer behavior. Improvement attributed to adoption of the transformation plan can be seen through the company’s revenue and profit trends. Supposedly, ITV plc admits that its transformation has contributed significantly to increase in its financial performance, which has continually enabled the company to post double digit earnings. At this juncture, preceding sections will involve dissecting ITV’s balance sheet and cash flow statements for the recent years since 2008. Changes in Revenue Fundamental analysis on ITV plc earnings will begin by acknowledging statistical figures of revenue for the past five years. In 2007, the company posted consolidated revenue of ?2,029 million. In 2008, total revenue generated from the different busines s sectors cumulated to ?2,082 million. In the two years, it emerges that TV broadcasting generates the largest revenue for the company, at ?1,652 million and ?1,750 million in 2008 and 2007 respectively. As at 31st December 2009, the company’s revenue dropped from ?2,350 million to ?1,879 million. Fortunately, 2010 came as relieve for the company after it posted improved revenue from TV studios and online broadcasting. In total, cumulative revenue for the company in 2010 stood at ?2,064 million, which is a substantial improvement compared to the 2009 figure of ?1,879 million. In succeeding years of 2011 and 2012, earnings generated from sales in form of revenue increased in a linear manner. In 2011, ITV plc had total revenue of ?2,140 followed by ?2,196 in 2012. Increase in revenue for these recent years is attributed to corresponding increase in sales within all business areas. In this regard, the figures posted above are true reflection of actuarial variations in revenue tr ends of ITV from 2007 to 2012. Changes in Profits Having appraised the revenue trend for ITV plc, it is not time to examine its profit patterns for the same period of five years. In this context, it is rationally assumed that tax rate for the five years remained consistent, thus profits considered will feature figures before tax. In 2007, ITV plc posted a before tax profit

Composer from Baroque to the Classical period Essay

Composer from Baroque to the Classical period - Essay Example Bach was a violin and harpsichord virtuoso. His main style was of polyphonic texture whereby, the chords progressions directed the music’s motion, which made him a master of the fugue. Bach’s music was very baroque, a term adapted as a connotation for extravagant, excess, and emotionally expressive music. Therefore, his music was full of emotion and featured a basso continuo. Bach composed a total 1128 works for voice, orchestra, organ, keyboard, chamber, and canon. Bach also composed works that were either fragmented, spurious doubtful, or lost. Sebastian Bach composed for the organ, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the violin. He lived in Germany. Bach’s cooperation with royalty was fuelled by his devotion to write Christian music, as evidenced by his compositions in his time at the Lutheran church. There were no direct political motives to write what he did. Bach’s influence on the Classical era is not profound. Although the classical musicians adop ted a new style of writing music, Mozart took interest in Sebastian Bach’s polyphonic tones in his Jupiter composition. Bach’s death in 1950 marked the end of the Baroque era and the beginning of the Classical period. Making him the most influential composer from the Baroque era to the Classical era. The Baroque period of music is a period that encouraged self-expression, formation of counterpoints, certain degrees of ornamentation and open forms. The period is known for its inconsistency; although the music in this era shares the same genre.

LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

LAW - Essay Example Being suspicious of a person is reason enough to warrant the officer asking questions of the individual but searching violates the Constitution. Others cite the safety of the officer as reason enough to allow them to search anyone they deem to be acting in a suspicious manner and if something illegal is found, it should be admissible evidence in court. The Supreme Court overwhelmingly agreed with the latter opinion. A detective on duty in Cleveland saw two men walking back and forth in front of a store, staring in the store’s window then speaking with a third man. The men were observed repeating this action about two dozen times. The detective thought these men may be ‘casing’ the store and intended to rob it at a later time so he approached them, had them turn around, raise their hands and ‘patted them down.’ Two of the three were found carrying weapons, Terry and Chilton, who were arrested and charged with concealed weapons violations. The seemingly simple case that more likely would have been settled in a municipal court became a test of the U.S. Constitution. At the trial, the defense argued that the facts of the case did not satisfy the definition of probable cause therefore the weapons were illegally seized, a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and should not be allowed as evidence during the trial. Of course this would have lead to an immediate dismissal of the case. The prosecution countered that the detective was within his full legal right to ‘frisk’ the men, that the evidence satisfied the definition of reasonable cause and the officer’s safety was dependent on this interpretation of the law. The court decided that the officer did have reasonable cause to believe the suspects were armed and were within his legal right to search them. It also declared that stopping an individual for questioning did not require the level of probable cause that is needed prior to making an arrest,

Group Effectiveness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Group Effectiveness - Essay Example Having said this, this part of the paper is aim at finding and assessing group effectiveness in the work place. standards of those using the output; Capability to work interdependently: the degree to which the group's members are able to work together in the future; and growth and well-being of members: the degree to which the experience of being in the group enhanced the individual members through the common goal (Hackman, 1990). Thus group effectiveness refers to the work quality of a work group. This will be illustrated using ASDA an international retail company with headquarters in the States. According to the work group model developed by Hackman (1990), the group that performs its assigned task well but is not able to work together in the future is not a truly effective group. ASDA is WALMART in the United Kingdom. At the stores, employees are defined within the roles they occupy and by departmental functions all working for a common goal. These group members, though working as a group are able to work independently in the absence of a group member. While, groups in ASDA are defined within various functions (e.g., Stocking group, cash department group, teller functions, security group etc) these are all indicative of the effectiveness of the various groups. Group effectiveness at ASDA supermarket, is further identified through a collective sense of "We" feelings amongst the group members. Thus at ASDA the life of a group and it members must be accounted for in determining the effectiveness of the group. This again can be seen from the common a shared common goal. For ex ample, ASDA UK sales have increased in the past two years. Again, return on assets and return on capital employed has also increased. Thus, based on Hackman (1990) argument that a group is effective once the output of the group is acceptable and satisfied those who consume it. 1.1.3 Assessing Group effectiveness at work Place According to Hackman (1998) review, group effectiveness can be assessed from different dimension. The researcher cited Hackett (1995) who illustrated the role of self-efficacy in career choice and development, she illustrates that self-efficacy plays a strong role in individual career choices. To assess the effectiveness of the group, attention should be paid at group commitment and output. At ASDA, employee's group effectivene

The Homeless Policy in New York City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Homeless Policy in New York City - Essay Example In addition, the viability of community policing as an efficient strategy in augmenting the policy will be addressed from a social and historical perspective. a. A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill); As a general overview, homelessness is on the rise all over the country. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in as study spanning 24 major cities , the demand for different forms of emergency shelter "had increased by 13% in 2001, and had swelled to 25% in 2005.. All in all, 71% of the cities registered an increase from the previous year." (Mayors, 2005) Aside from that, people were homeless for an average of seven months, a very disturbing figure which only continues to grow annually. In New York, Port Authority had banned panhandling in PATH subway stations and bus terminals nearly two decades ago, and this was a ruling that has been repeatedly been upheld by the Supreme Court. With dwindling funding and inadequate support from the local government, the common perception is that these big cities have turned their backs on the homeless. It is a pressing problem that is constantly looking us in the eye, and yet is continually ignored. Historically, homelessness started its rapid rise in the 1980's, when the Reagan administration cut public funding for low-cost housing in half. To further illustrate this, "between 1980 and 1989 the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget was slashed from $74 billion to $19 billion". (Dreier, 2004) This resulted in an a shortfall in the availability of low-cost housing, just as the population in the concerned areas was increasing. It is widely believed that a lot of those displaced by these measures ended up in the streets, resulting in an exponential jump in the national homeless numbers. Coupled with the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals which also displaced a lot of mentally ill patients, the city was being faced with a chronic and nagging problem that was turning critical by the day. New York was at the center of this social unrest in 1988, "when a riot erupted in Tompkins Square Park as police forcibly attempted to enforce a freshly-signed curfew on the park"(Purdum, 1988) This curfew was widely viewed as a thinly veiled attempt to evict the homeless residing in the park., and it quickly turned into a human rights snafu as numerous innocent bystanders were caught up in the fracas. Civic-minded organizations within the city tried their very best to assist the

Discussion 7 international relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion 7 international relations - Essay Example 47). Kant’s article thus has promoted a unique cosmopolitan approach to developing an international law that all individuals possess equal rights regardless of the country they belong to. His work put forward specific three articles about perpetual peace among nations, they are, a) republican-character of every states’ civil constitution, b) law of nations as being federation of free states, and c) world citizenship as conditions of universal (Russett, Starr and Kinsella, 2009). First section of Immanuel Kant’s writings emphasized that no peace-treaty will be valid if it is made with a secret reservation for material for a future war, an independently existing land shall not be acquired by another state for inheritance, standing armies shall gradually be abolished, a state’s debts shall not be contracted in connection with the external affairs of the state etc. The other sections from his writings suggested that each nation can demand of the others that th ey should enter along with them in to a constitution, similar to the civil one for the sake of security reasons. His perpetual peace theory denoted idea of international right which in turn presupposes the separate existence of many independent states (Kant, p. 368- 374).