The Measure Of Man
I. Attention
A. I grew up rather healthy. I had no physical ailments, and I could operate rather normally. I had no diseases, but I would come to encounter them in others.
B. I once met a boy my age at the time, perhaps 6, who had leukemia. His hairless head was amazingly striking to me, but I found it to be quite perplexing for a boy my age to suffer from such a disease. I had though diseases were something that old people get.
C. Next I would meet it on a fictional but all too real level. When watching the show, Sisters, with my mother, the father of the lead character contracted Alzheimer's disease. I didn't know what it was, but when it was explained and I saw it in action, I became very sacred that I might meet such an antagonist in my own life.
II. Needs
A. Being a non-believer as it regards the afterlife or any other such realms of existence outside our world of the living, I see physical diseases and ailments to be a great threat toward our one chance we have at living. There is no questioning that we all die at some point, but must it be in agony? Should our road to death be blanketed by unrelenting physical ailments that may cause such pain that on should wish the road were shorter?
B. Disease such as Alzheimer's and many others causes great harm to those diagnosed with them and for their loved ones who will suffer psychologically due to such events. Death usually follows from both illnesses and up to this point there's no cure proposed for either disease. Statistics on Alzheimer's:
1. In the United States of America, AD was the 7th leading cause of death in 2004, with 65,829 number of deaths (and rising).
2. There are an estimated 24 million people with dementia worldwide. More than 5 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease..
3. By 2040, it is projected that this figure will have increased to 81 million.
4. It is projected that 14.3 million Americans will have the disease by mid-century: a 350 percent increase from 2000.
C. It is the understanding of many religious groups that the before mentioned ailment, and any other for that matter, are discourses that one is meant to undergo. By this thinking a disease will either strike someone as a form of a test, or as punishment acquired by committing great acts of sin. Though it is interesting to note that it is somewhat difficult for a child to have committed any sin given their knowledge of the matter is quite bleak. So for a child to suffer leukemia is paradoxical using this logic unless there are a means to an end to punish older sinners.
D. In confronting the truth of each of our deaths, why can't the above-mentioned ideal that such physical suffering should be endured, and even more, welcomed? Life may come by us once, and for some the time spent in it might be in great pain, but at least they'll be an amazing Utopia waiting for some in the afterlife. For this to be the truth one must be willing to let go of the notion that the self has any substance or value.
E. If we are to concur with the ideas of the church, then we should endure suffering seeing as it's all part of the Plan. However for those who suffer greatly this may or may not come as any consolation. We are still left with having to deal with these diseases with no real guarantee of a better time afterward, and if we are to take the word of the church we are not able to live a life of substance.
III. Satisfaction
A. Saying no to any predicament is one's personal signifier that one's being is to be treated and redeemed as being one of value. To date it is common knowledge that many diseases are without cure, but stem cell research is granting hope and a means to say no to what used to be a fatal ordeal.
B. Stem Cells are undifferentiated cells derived from a human embryo that can be differentiated into a type of cell through lab procedures and inserted into damaged areas of a person's body for repair.
1. A blastocyst is an early stage embryo - approximately 4 to 5 days old in humans and consisting of 50-150 cells. Stems cells are derived from this stage.
C. A number of adult stem cell therapies already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukaemia. Other disorders that may be treated by stem cells are:
1. Immune deficiency
2. Inherited Severe Blood Cell Diseases
3. Marrow Failure
4. Cancer
5. Parkinson's Disease
6. Spinal cord and muscle injuries
D. The church and other oppose such resaerch and treatments due to the idea that the embryo destroyed to acquire stems cells is a living being and should be endowed human rights. Also, such actions to alleviate one of their physical ailments to go against the Creator's Plan for suffering. Though seeing as there's no exact proof of the Creator's existence, then it is quite absurd to undertake the notion that one should suffer for a being that is just one big Maybe.
E. As it relates to the notion that an embryo can be conceived as a living being with rights, one has to question then what it mean to be human seeing as for the most part these rights aren't granted to other living being such as animals or plant life. For some reason a human embryo that has no personal history or anticipation of the future has more rights than an animal who has a habitat, prepares for the future, and has relations with the enviroment. An embryo has none of these attributes, and is still at the mercy of its care-taker, the woman, an actual person who is in the world at large, exposed to its tumult and ordeals, and has a history to account for by means of her choices.
F. To look at this front a biological view point, an embryo doesn't form a cerebelluem until many weeks after conception. Without a cerebelluem you have no brain activity, no brain activity means no memory, no memory-no history.
G. Any relgious take on the matter has no validity in that it takes no time to define the perimeters of what it means to be human. For we the living every moment spent is in regards to one's substance and the indication to the world that it is of value while it still breathes. In our short time on this planet, if one has any care for one's self and others, we should pursue to expand our knowledge on stem cell research to better our ability to say no to disorders that up until now have struck us with horrible defeats.
IV. Visualization
A. If the church is permitted to have their way int is matter then those who suffer will continue to for the sake of Maybe. Children will live as sinners before their time and will confront the unknown not ever being granted the chance to bleed, sweat, fuck, cry, cheer, and be merry. Instead they will walk into the great unkown as a sinner or a tool for the Plan.
B. The statistics from before are quite real, and there's no doubt that anyone of us, or somebody we care about, can be one of them in the future. An illness is an antagonist like any other and can only be met by a protagonist, one who is willing to say I'm someone of value and my time on this planet means something, or to take into evaluation that others are also beings of value.
V. Action
A. There are many organizations most of which are accisible via the internet. Keep yourself informed on politicians views on the matter and the upcoming election. Certains bills have been proposed to aid in funding stem cell research that have been vetoed by presidents swayed by the masochistic notion's of the church.
B. We've already permitted the death of Superman by not supporting means to rid him of his ailments. This research may allow us after many years of suffering to say no to disease, and yes to life and to the lives of others.
I. Attention
A. I grew up rather healthy. I had no physical ailments, and I could operate rather normally. I had no diseases, but I would come to encounter them in others.
B. I once met a boy my age at the time, perhaps 6, who had leukemia. His hairless head was amazingly striking to me, but I found it to be quite perplexing for a boy my age to suffer from such a disease. I had though diseases were something that old people get.
C. Next I would meet it on a fictional but all too real level. When watching the show, Sisters, with my mother, the father of the lead character contracted Alzheimer's disease. I didn't know what it was, but when it was explained and I saw it in action, I became very sacred that I might meet such an antagonist in my own life.
II. Needs
A. Being a non-believer as it regards the afterlife or any other such realms of existence outside our world of the living, I see physical diseases and ailments to be a great threat toward our one chance we have at living. There is no questioning that we all die at some point, but must it be in agony? Should our road to death be blanketed by unrelenting physical ailments that may cause such pain that on should wish the road were shorter?
B. Disease such as Alzheimer's and many others causes great harm to those diagnosed with them and for their loved ones who will suffer psychologically due to such events. Death usually follows from both illnesses and up to this point there's no cure proposed for either disease. Statistics on Alzheimer's:
1. In the United States of America, AD was the 7th leading cause of death in 2004, with 65,829 number of deaths (and rising).
2. There are an estimated 24 million people with dementia worldwide. More than 5 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease..
3. By 2040, it is projected that this figure will have increased to 81 million.
4. It is projected that 14.3 million Americans will have the disease by mid-century: a 350 percent increase from 2000.
C. It is the understanding of many religious groups that the before mentioned ailment, and any other for that matter, are discourses that one is meant to undergo. By this thinking a disease will either strike someone as a form of a test, or as punishment acquired by committing great acts of sin. Though it is interesting to note that it is somewhat difficult for a child to have committed any sin given their knowledge of the matter is quite bleak. So for a child to suffer leukemia is paradoxical using this logic unless there are a means to an end to punish older sinners.
D. In confronting the truth of each of our deaths, why can't the above-mentioned ideal that such physical suffering should be endured, and even more, welcomed? Life may come by us once, and for some the time spent in it might be in great pain, but at least they'll be an amazing Utopia waiting for some in the afterlife. For this to be the truth one must be willing to let go of the notion that the self has any substance or value.
E. If we are to concur with the ideas of the church, then we should endure suffering seeing as it's all part of the Plan. However for those who suffer greatly this may or may not come as any consolation. We are still left with having to deal with these diseases with no real guarantee of a better time afterward, and if we are to take the word of the church we are not able to live a life of substance.
III. Satisfaction
A. Saying no to any predicament is one's personal signifier that one's being is to be treated and redeemed as being one of value. To date it is common knowledge that many diseases are without cure, but stem cell research is granting hope and a means to say no to what used to be a fatal ordeal.
B. Stem Cells are undifferentiated cells derived from a human embryo that can be differentiated into a type of cell through lab procedures and inserted into damaged areas of a person's body for repair.
1. A blastocyst is an early stage embryo - approximately 4 to 5 days old in humans and consisting of 50-150 cells. Stems cells are derived from this stage.
C. A number of adult stem cell therapies already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukaemia. Other disorders that may be treated by stem cells are:
1. Immune deficiency
2. Inherited Severe Blood Cell Diseases
3. Marrow Failure
4. Cancer
5. Parkinson's Disease
6. Spinal cord and muscle injuries
D. The church and other oppose such resaerch and treatments due to the idea that the embryo destroyed to acquire stems cells is a living being and should be endowed human rights. Also, such actions to alleviate one of their physical ailments to go against the Creator's Plan for suffering. Though seeing as there's no exact proof of the Creator's existence, then it is quite absurd to undertake the notion that one should suffer for a being that is just one big Maybe.
E. As it relates to the notion that an embryo can be conceived as a living being with rights, one has to question then what it mean to be human seeing as for the most part these rights aren't granted to other living being such as animals or plant life. For some reason a human embryo that has no personal history or anticipation of the future has more rights than an animal who has a habitat, prepares for the future, and has relations with the enviroment. An embryo has none of these attributes, and is still at the mercy of its care-taker, the woman, an actual person who is in the world at large, exposed to its tumult and ordeals, and has a history to account for by means of her choices.
F. To look at this front a biological view point, an embryo doesn't form a cerebelluem until many weeks after conception. Without a cerebelluem you have no brain activity, no brain activity means no memory, no memory-no history.
G. Any relgious take on the matter has no validity in that it takes no time to define the perimeters of what it means to be human. For we the living every moment spent is in regards to one's substance and the indication to the world that it is of value while it still breathes. In our short time on this planet, if one has any care for one's self and others, we should pursue to expand our knowledge on stem cell research to better our ability to say no to disorders that up until now have struck us with horrible defeats.
IV. Visualization
A. If the church is permitted to have their way int is matter then those who suffer will continue to for the sake of Maybe. Children will live as sinners before their time and will confront the unknown not ever being granted the chance to bleed, sweat, fuck, cry, cheer, and be merry. Instead they will walk into the great unkown as a sinner or a tool for the Plan.
B. The statistics from before are quite real, and there's no doubt that anyone of us, or somebody we care about, can be one of them in the future. An illness is an antagonist like any other and can only be met by a protagonist, one who is willing to say I'm someone of value and my time on this planet means something, or to take into evaluation that others are also beings of value.
V. Action
A. There are many organizations most of which are accisible via the internet. Keep yourself informed on politicians views on the matter and the upcoming election. Certains bills have been proposed to aid in funding stem cell research that have been vetoed by presidents swayed by the masochistic notion's of the church.
B. We've already permitted the death of Superman by not supporting means to rid him of his ailments. This research may allow us after many years of suffering to say no to disease, and yes to life and to the lives of others.