RJA #11c: Thesis Statement Check

http://jalves1.blogspot.com/2009/10/research-journal-assignment-10a.html
http://stinoeng.blogspot.com/2009/10/rja-10a.html

RJA #11b: Visual Aids

1) A diagram illustrating how either, or both types of genetic manipulation is executed.
2) A picture that shows how genetic modifaction is used to treat disease.
3) A table of results of a poll taken to see popular opinion on different aspects of human genetic manipulation
-should it be legalized?
-should it be allowed in embryos?
-is it better or worse overall for society?
-etc.
4) A chart of possible recipients of genetic therapies derived from human genetic manipulation-people who would benefit from the technology based on different ailments or diseases (diabetes, cancer,etc.).
5) Picture/s of people with conditions that can be treated using human genetic manipulation, or of children with medically-involved birth defects that could have been prevented by h.g. manipulation (down syndrome, autism, etc.)?

RJA #11a: Introduction

Imagine you have cancer- metastatic melanoma to be exact, which means that your immune system is deficient and can't help you recover if you get sick. This means that if you get even the slightest cold or minor infection it could cause you to become violently ill or possibly die. Now imagine there's a treatment that could significatly restore your immunities by attacking the cancer cells and bolstering your health- sounds like something out of a science-fiction book right? Wrong! With human gene therapies and human genetic manipulation, this relief as well as many other treatments are already possible. Human genetic manipulation and testing should only be allowed for the purpose of treating malevolent medical conditions. This would set a clear guideline on how far the implementation of this technology could go which will prevent possible, negative consequences such as engineering people for aesthetic purposes, or overpopulation due to extended longevity. While preventing overuse and abuse of this powerful new technology, such restrictions will allow this research to be utilized to help improve the lives of millions.

RJA #10b: Argument

Argument:
+++Reason 1
--Practical-Human genetic manipulation can alleviate existing conditions for people who suffer from genetic diseases: spina bifita, autism, certain types of cancer,etc.

-less expensive therapy without potential side effects (other medications or radiation therapy)
-Ethics-utilitarian approach (maximizing happiness/minimizing suffering)

+++Reason 2
--Practical-germ line manipulation would allow children to be born without maladies which means less suffering on their part, and less expenditures on health care
-this research could allow parents to prevent their child being born with preventable diseases, but the line must be drawn at what is absolutely necessary for well-being

-Draws the line at necessary medical conditions.
-preventing engineered people for purposes that aren't medically important would disallow 'designer babies'
-could prevent diseases from being passed to subsequent generations.
-Ethical-Utilitarianism, Deontology (respects a universal maxim that all would chose to be born free of maladies)

+++Reason 3
--Practical-If we use genetic engineering too extensively, then there will be societal drawbacks:

-with cosmetic human genetic manipulation people's differences would be more scrutinized in a malevolent sense because engineered people would be 'elite' as opposed to people born with 'flaws'.
-if human genetic manipulation was limited to disease-control/prevention purposes alone, it would prevent weapons applications also
-too much genetic manipulation could cause unforeseen consequences such as DNA degeneration or mutation
-too much manipulation on traits like longevity will greatly affect the rate of population growth.
-Ethical-utilitarianism (max. happiness by preventing discrimination, etc. spurred by creating people- reference Hitler) Deontology (Preserves the humanity and individualism of an unborn person by not changing physical traits for cosmetic purposes)

RJA #10a: Thesis Statement

Research Question-
Should human genetic manipulation and testing be legalized for medical purposes?
Precise Claim-
Human genetic manipulation and testing on humans should be legalized for medical purposes, but only for treatment of serious existing medical conditions.
Reasons-
1)Human genetic manipulation can alleviate existing conditions for people who suffer from genetic diseases such as spina bifita, autism, etc.
-less expensive therapy without potential side effects
2)This research can allow parents to prevent their child being born with preventable diseases but the distinction must be made between what is medically necessary and what isn't- therefore it would prevent manipulation from going too far-i.e. engineering people to be a specific way (physical attributes, mental capacity, etc.)
3)If we use genetic enginnering too extensively, then there will be societal drawbacks such as overpopulation.
Thesis:
Human genetic manipulation and testing should only be allowed for the purpose of treating malevolent medical conditions. This would set a clear guideline on how far the implementation of this technology could go which will prevent possible negative consequences such as engineering people for unnecessary purposes and overpopulation due to extended longevity, and it will allow this research to be utilized to help improve the lives of already-living people.

Extra Credit #1 Zakta Guide

RJA #9: Evaluation of Sources

-Gunderson, Martin. "Seeking Perfection: A Kantian Look at Human Genetic". Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 2007: 87-102.

This source seems very credible because it has a lot of outside research. It's not exacty practically credible necessarily though because it deals a lot with ethics which can be subjective at times. The article is published in a medical journal though so it should be credible enough for me to use in my paper.

-Simmons, D. (2008) Genetic inequality: Human genetic engineering. Nature Education 1(1)

This source seems pretty credible also. It is published by a site that has a lot of credibility and self-asserts itself as being academic. I think I can use this in my paper, but i'll have to be careful that I use information written by the experts and not people who are replying or commenting.

-Shanks, Pete. Human Genetic Engineering: A Guide for Activists, Skeptics, and the Very Perplexed. New York: Nation Books, 2005.

This book seems very credible becasue the author has a couple of degrees and he has written other scholarly books on similar subjects. The sources for his writing are vast and diverse so I believe he got an objective view of the topic.

-Marks, Stephen. "Tying Prometheus down: The international law of human genetic manipulation". Chicago Journal of International Law . Chicago: University of Chicago Law School, 2002.

This source is credible because it's published by a very known and respected journal. The journal is published by the University of Chicago Law School as well, which leads me to believe that this source is extremely accurate, and worth using on my paper.

-Communications and Public Liaison Branch, "Genome.gov". National Human Genome Research Institute. 10/15/2009 http://www.genome.gov/Research/.

This is a very credible source too. The human genome project is the organization that doesn't the majority of research on human genetics in the U.S. so it's safe to assume that their website has good information.

-AllAboutGOD.com. "Human Genetic Engineering- A Very Hot Issue!". All About Popular Issues. 10/15/2009 http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/human-genetic-engineering.htm.

This website might not be very credible. On the surface it looks like it holds water, but after further analysis I found that it was created by a religious group so the information is probably swayed to protect religious beliefs and/or interests. I highly doubt i'll be using this source for my paper.

RJA #8c: Multimedia

Blinkx.com
Keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, DNA
Search strategies: some boolean search engine modifiers
Date of search: 10/9/09
18,000 hits
3 out of 5 relevance

RJA #8b: Social Media

Icerocket.com
Keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, dna
Search Strategies: Advanced search with search engine math
Date searched: 10/9/09
67 hits
3 out of 5 relevance

Feedmill.com
Keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, dna
Search Strategies: Advanced search with search engine math
Date searched: 10/9/09
5,939 hits
3 out of 5 relevance

RJA #8a: Websites

Google.com
keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, DNA
advanced search with boolean and search engine math
Searched 10/9/09
74,700 hits
3.5 out of 5 relevance

Allplus.com Metacrawler
keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, DNA
advanced search with boolean and search engine math
Searched 10/9/09
140 hits
4.5 out of 5 relevance

Directory-Hound.com
keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, DNA
advanced search with boolean and search engine math
Searched 10/9/09
77,000 hits
4 out of 5 relevance

Incywincy.com
keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, DNA
advanced search with boolean and search engine math
Searched 10/9/09
3,451 hits
3.5 out of 5 relevance

Iresearch-reporter.com
keywords: human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, DNA
advanced search with boolean and search engine math
Searched 10/9/09
5 hits
4.5 out of 5 relevance

Internet Research Project

-IncyWincy
http://www.Incywincy.com
This engine is used to find deep-web information, and in that regard it's very useful. The directory for the site is extensive which is helpful as well, but the overall amount of information in the database isn't comparable to that of google, etc. The other interesting thing about this search tool is that it has an option to search for just larger sites that have searches within them. This would be effective for finding more credible resources possibly because a site is probably professional and legitimate if it has a database that can be searched.
Strengths of IncyWincy are that it can search deep-web information and that it tells you by percentage how relevant the results are to your search terms. Weaknesses are that it isn't that large of a database and that the advanced search tool isn't very in-depth or useful. IncyWincy searches "hundreds of thousands" of other search engines and directories apparently, but the amount of results I got when using it suggests otherwise. This engine accepts some search engine math and parentheses, but doesn't work with boolean search operators. The searches aren't case sensitive so if you accidentally type a capital letter instead of a lowercase-or vice versa, there won't be an effect on the results. Stop words don't work on this site, and the advanced search function isn't anything special. The advanced search gives you an option to search for 'exact phrase', 'all words' or 'any of these words' and allows you to limit the amount of results per page, as well as change the search language. The results are sorted according to relevance determined by IncyWincy's "unique search engine relevancy algorithm", and are displayed in a standard text listing format similar to other basic search engines. IncyWincy seems pretty straightforward and doesn't have a help function or any special features that I can see. Overall it seems like this engine could be very useful, but outside of its deep-web search capabilities it's nothing special.

RJA #7c: Field Research Plan

For the field research part of my sources i'm planning on conducting an interview of someone who works in the genetics field. Theoretically, i'd like to be able to complete this interview and have the information I need for this portion of the research within the next two to 3 weeks, but who knows exactly how long it will take to get the attention and time of such an expert. When I conduct the interview, I plan on asking some general questions like "do you think that genetic research will be a cure-all solution to disease?" or "does the ethical protestation of genetic research prevent timely breakthroughs?". Then i'll lead into more technical questions so that i'll know some specifics on how the genetic modification process works. "how are different genomes isolated?", "how do you know there won't be adverse consequences to this technology later?"

RJA #7b: Internet Research Tool Test

Incywincy.com
-search 1
Keywords: Human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, genomes, DNA
strategies: advanced search, boolean operators (only 'AND' and "" though)
10/1/09
6,000 hits
4 out of 5 relevance- top results were very relevant though
-search 2
Keywords: Human, genetic, manipulation, engineering, genomes, DNA, RNA, disease
strategies: advanced search, boolean operators
10/1/09
2,000 hits
4.5 out of 5 relevance

RJA #7a: Internet Research Tools

When i'm doing research that isn't regulated quite as much as in this class I use google, ask.com, yahoo, AOL, and bing most frequently. These search engines are, frankly, the only ones I use when trying to find information on a topic. Each of them are better or worse for finding different types of information, but overall i'd have to say that I use google the most because of the convenience and because it has extremely vast coverage and completes large searches quickly (gets the most hits in the shortest time). The problem with google, at times, is that the results it finds sometimes lack relevance to what i'm actually searching for. Ask is sometimes very good for finding the answer to a more specific question, but it doesn't seem to pull the amount of information total that google can. Yahoo is a really good one for finding information related to the news or sports because they have a lot of news stories and such that they link to, as well as being a portal for free registered email. I use AOL on a regular basis simply because of convenience because I have an AOL email account, so sometimes i'm already on the site when I start looking so it's an alright place to begin. Bing.com is a relatively new search engine that i've started using only recently because I saw commercials for it. The good thing about this search engine is that it finds very relevant hits and doesn't include the irrelevant items in the results. The only downside to it is that it seems to have less information in its database than that of google.
http://www.google.com
http://www.yahoo.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.aol.com
http://www.bing.com