Terri Schiavo Case

In 1990, at the age of 26, Terri suffered a mysterious cardio-respiratory arrest for which no cause has ever been determined . She was diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy - neuorlogical injury caused by lack of oxygen to the brain . It was also said that she struggled with Bulimia and possible abuse from her spouse . Terri was then placed on a ventilator, but was soon able to breathe on her own and maintain vital function . She remained in a severely compromised neuorlogical state and was provided a PEG tube to ensure the safe delivery of nourishment and hydration . On March 31, 2005, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of marked dehydration following more than 13 days without nutrition or hydration under the order of Circuit Court Judge, George W. Greer of the Pinellas-Pascho's Sixth Judicial Court . Terri was 41 .

Terri Schiavo died due to the removal of her feeding tube, having been starved and dehydrated to death . I think that even though it would be good to allow Terri to rest in a better place, it was wrong to starve her to death . She was still technicaly alive even though she was in a coma, and being starved and dehydrated to death wouldn't be the best option . There could have been other ways to "pull the plug". I still think that it was a good idea to pull the plug, however . She seemed to be unhappy with her life, looking back at how she was bulimic and possibly abused by her husband . For all we know, she may have been trying to end her life . She may have been so unhappy with herself and her life that she wanted to end her life, so then keeping her alive wouldn't have been good for her . She wasn't really living her life like she should have been at her age, and for 15 years she stayed in the state of her coma . If I were her, I would have wanted people to "pull my plug". If you read the article here, you will see that it is said that some patients that come out of a coma have to relearn the most basic human skills . It could be possible that Terri, after 15 years of being in a coma, would have to relearn basic skills such as talking . Terri was 41 at the time of her death, and if she were to have to relearn all these basic skills, then wouldn't it be best to just rest in a better place ? If you were 41 and you had to relearn all these things, wouldn't it be frustrating ? I think that it was best to end Terri's life, but I also think that there could have been an alternative to ending her life through the removal of her feeding tube .

Gattaca & Natal Spectrum

Gattaca is a film that has to do with bioethics . The main character of the movie is Vincent (aka Gerome) . He is an in-valid, or a natural born . He wasn't genetically changed like his brother . In ways, I guess you could say that he felt inferior because he was an in-valid . Until one day, he meets Gerome Morrow . Gerome is a valid . But he's not like other vailds . He's paralyzed from the waist down . He stepped in front of a car, causing himself to become paralyzed . To sum it up, Vincent pretty much becomes Gerome . Gerome puts his samples in pouches for Vincent to use to pass off as a valid . And eventually, "Gerome" (Vincent) begins to work at Gattaca, which is a space board . Then a murder occurs at Gattaca . "Gerome" goes to check it out, and his eyelash falls off and floats onto the edge . The crime scene investigators find it, and have it scanned to find that the eyelash belonged to an in-valid . They become suspicious that the in-valid may have been the murderer, and starts a search . They have frequent samples taken from the employees at Gattaca, causing a lot of worries for "Gerome". Towards the end, they find out that the in-valid had nothing to do with the murder, and instead, it was a completely different person that had committed the murder . Then, "Gerome" finds out that the crime investigator is really his brother . They have another game of Chicken, which is when they both swim out as far as they can into the ocean, and whoever turns around to go back to shore is the 'chicken'. "Gerome" surprisingly not only beats his brother, but also saves his life by helping him back to shore . Then after more minor things happen in the movie, Vincent is finally going off into space, and Gerome decides to end his life because he had hated the feeling of always being inferior to others .

I think that this movie wasn't bad . I got confused at some parts because it was a lot to take in, but other than that, it was a nice movie . It definitely had me thinking about the possibilities of changing people genetically, before birth, and definitely had a lot to do about bioethics .

9 Natal Bioethical Issues from Least Controversial to Most Controversial

1. Natural Reproduction

2. Carrier Testing - Genetic tests of parents that show the risk of passing on a genetic disorder

3. Prenatal Testing - genetic screening of fetus for genes that cause disorders

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

5. Fertility Drugs - Prescription drugs which increase a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Cloning - The creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another .

9. 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.

I chose to order my list in this way, because of my ideas of what's right and wrong . Natural reproduction for me is the least controversial, because it doesn't involve any changing, or any artificial components, it's all natural . I believe that Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Non-deleterious Traits is the most controversial because it involves picking out the traits of your child, which is something that we discussed in class . That, and cloning are at around the same level, because they are both, in my opinion, two topics that many people can argue about . Prenatal and Carrier testing are also consider two of the least controversial because in my eyes, they are both for positive reasons . They are both to see if the child has any diseases or any disabilities before he/she is born, which could be treated before he/she is born . The rest of the ideas that are in the middle of least and most controversial are the ones that I believe could be considered to be for positive reasons, but at the same time could be considered wrong in the eyes of some .

I think that people should stop at Fertility drugs . Even fertility drugs could be controversial, but I think that everything afterwards is a little too much . For example, In vitro fertilization . Fertilization of sperm and egg in a Petri dish. In vitro fertilization is when viable embryos are chosen and inserted into the female reproductive tract via a syringe in the doctor's office . I for one, just don't like the idea of "viable" embryos being picked and chosen . Even though it could be to remove any risk of disease or disability, I just don't like the idea of picking out someone's traits . Even though this idea isn't necessarily changing traits, it's still choosing and picking out the "best" embryos . This is also why I'm pretty against Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Diseases . Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Diseases is when 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 the doctors office . So pretty much, it's when they pick out the traits that they want for their child, and that they would like . I believe that people shouldn't have to go as far as picking out their child's traits . Everyone is born with there own special traits which is what makes them special and unique . If everyone were to get their traits chosen and picked out, then how would anyone really be unique ? There would be so many people with the same traits . So even though some people may believe for this to be "right" I believe that it isn't necessary and it shouldn't be a method that people should have to turn to .

Choices and Values : Value Characteristics

Our Gifted and Talented class has recently begun the unit of 'Ethics' . We began with defining values and morals, then we took a values survey to see what we valued and what characteristics described us . The results from the survey said that I value :

1. Education, Intelligence, Wisdom


2. Religion, Spirituality


3. Family, Love, Emotinal Security


4. Financial Security, Money, and Status .

These were the characteristics that were related to the numbers I checked off on the list . I think that these characteristics do in fact describe me well . Education is something that I care about . School for example, is something that I put a lot of effort in and hope to continue to do well in . Religion is also something that I grew up with . I go to church on Sundays and Fridays every week, and I do a lot of things with my youth group . Such as going on retreats or helping out needy people . Family is probably the characteristic that I think best describes me . My family is probably my first priority, and they are the people that I can't live without . Money and Status surprised me however . I never really thought that I cared about money . But the way I see it, is that I want to be 'financially stable' . I obviously want to live without financial issues within our family, so I think that might be why Financial Security was one of my characteristics .

The Trouble With Geniuses : Part 1 & 2

In my gifted and talented class, we are reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell . This book is basically about success, and how one can become successful . He talks a lot about advantages, especially with age, and he also talks about how you have to practice a certain amount of hours to really be 'good' at something .

In chapters 3 and 4, Gladwell talks a lot about Chris Langan, who is described as the 'Smartest Man on Earth', with an IQ of 195 . Einstein only had an IQ of 150 ... Langan had a rather difficult childhood and education in my opinion . He grew up to be smart, but even so, he dropped out of college twice . Once because his scholarship wasn't renewed, and the other was because the school was giving him a hard time . He later on became a bar bouncer, which I don't think many people would've predicted . For someone with an IQ like Langan's, it's definitely not something one would expect .

The question is asked though, "Is Chris Langan really successful ?", and in my opinion, he's pretty successful . Our class definition of 'successful' was : to maintain a balance between financial stability and happiness with self and others and to accomplish the goals you want to achieve . Langan may not have done all that he could've, but I think that he's definitely happy with where he is now . He's married, and he owns a farm, but he's still able to do what he loves . He's currently working on proving the existence of God . In a video that we watched in class, Langan said that he was happy with his life . I think that if he's content with the life that he's living, then he could be considered successful .

From these 2 chapters, I learned a lot about how background can affect a person . Chris Langan was held back by a lot of things that happened in his early life, like his scholarship getting taken away so he couldn't afford college . But I feel that if he still had the money to continue his years in college, he could have been farther in life than he is right now . I'm hoping to also do more of what I love, now that I've read this chapter . Though Langan loves what he does, Oppenheimer (Another 'genius' mentioned in the chapters) was not . He went through stages of depression in his life . I'm hoping that whatever I may do, that I'll really love what I'm doing, and always strive for greatness .

Kindergarten Debate

The findings in the alriticle Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril by Sam Wang are similar to those found in Malcolm Gladwell's in Outliers . Both writers believe that "redshirted" students are somewhat at a disadvantage . They also believe that seperating the 2 different groups (younger and older kids) could place the students in a learning environment that could help them to learn/achieve more, alongside other students that have similar learning strategies . I agree with Gladwell's concept of "accumulative advantage" . I agree, because older kids, like stated in a chapter of the book Outliers, are more physically able than younger kids are, therefore, getting themselves somewhat of an advantage in things such as sports . While the younger kids are at a disadvantage, because they will always be put in the "lower groups" . An example would be in Outliers, the younger kids that played Hockey would be automatically put in the lower group, while the older kids would be seperated into the more advanced group, neither one of them really judging on the talent that they really had . As stated in Wang's article, "[...] Physical maturity allows older kids to perform better ."

Introducing Jooeun Han

My name is Jooeun Han, I'm a freshman in high school, and I'm currently 13 turning 14 on the 26th of September . My favorite subjects in school would have to be English and Biology . My favorite topics to learn about are music, fashion, and english . My favorite hobbies, and things that I like to do in my free time, would have to be listening to my iPod, singing, dancing, eating, sleeping, playing the keyboard, playing tennis and volleyball, doing basketball and football with my brother, reading, going on my laptop, watching videos on YouTube, texting, shopping, hanging out with friends, baking, and playing the wii . I'm hoping, that after my high school experience, and after my years of college, to become a Pediatrician or a Pharmacist . If that doesn't work out, I'm hoping to do something that may involve music, or younger children . Having a good time with my family and friends, and resting and going out to fun and interesting places would have to be some of the things that make me happy .