Drafts

Paternalism is a very controversial topic that has such persuasive pros and cons that most arguments about the topic tend to end without a definitive winner. Paternalism by definition is the overriding of ones autonomy for their own good. For a person to be completely autonomous they must be able to make decisions on their own without pressure from others and without any violation of their free will. This idea of paternalism comes up very often in the medical field, which has led to many controversial cases where doctors exercised or did not exercise medical paternalism. In my opinion I side with Goldman who believes that medical paternalism is more often than not unjustified, unless faced with an exceptional situation. One of Goldman’s strongest arguments in my opinion is that most people tend to not value mere existence in this world, many people on earth cherish purpose and a quality life over simple existence. In plainest terms this simply means many people if put in a position to live on life support in a coma or to die, would choose to die because a life on life support in a coma is not one filled with purpose or enjoyment. With this in mind I do not believe it is within a doctors rights to override a patients decisions because the doctor believes it is what is best because the doctor is most likely unaware of what the patient values most in their life and it very well may not be their existence, it may be their religion or their enjoyment of their life. Also I believe that as humans one of our greatest privileges is free will and the ability to make conscious decisions for ourselves, and medical paternalism in many cases violates that ability and in my opinion that is wrong, even if it is for the patient’s own good. I believe that as long as a patient is fully aware of the consequences and they are of sound and independent mind, they should have full control over their life. All in all I believe that medical paternalism as a whole is morally impermissible, I do believe there are exceptions but those rare circumstances are few and far between and as a whole the idea of medical paternalism is morally impermissible because it violates the basic human right of autonomy.

The purpose of this study was to examine mutations in the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) adenine biosynthesis pathway. Adenine is one of the four nucleotides making up DNA, and thus is a vital compound for the survival of the yeast. The synthesis pathway of adenine has many steps, with different enzymes changing the compound until finally adenine is produced. The enzymes involved in these steps are named “Ade” followed by a number. This study examined mutation in the Ade1 and Ade2 enzymes. Ade2 converts the compound AIR into CAIR, and Ade1 converts CAIR into SAICAIR

I agree with you about people eventually pushing the limits with genetic modification. I'm not sure if I completely agree with doctors truly knowing what to expect with certain medicines. Sometimes there are medicines that get cheated into the system just like how certain variations of genetic modification today are being used to say, cure diseases. I'm not saying that those variations of genetic modification are being cheated into the system since they're already being used quite a bit. In a way I just think those medicines and genetic modification are similar and are already being used. Therefore, I don't think doctors completely know what to expect when it comes to certain medicines either, not to mention genetic modification.

In this experiment Koch’s Postulates were performed in displaying that it truly can prove that particular organism cause a particular disease. Starting off with the first step of koch’s postulates which states the organism should only be present in individuals suffering from the disease and not in healthy individuals. The carrots with disease where examined for signs of infection and compared to carrots that were not infected. What was observed was the carrots looking very dry, having a slightly brown center, musty odor, and mushy when touched. All clear signs of infection. For the second step of Koch’s Postulates which states the organism must be grown in a pure culture away from the diseased individual. The infected carrots were scraped with a loop removing some of its soft rotting carrot flesh onto Nutrient agar plate and MacConkey agar plate.

Diabetes Ketoacidosis (DKA) starts to express symptoms from the lack of the hormone insulin. When things are working normally, insulin delivers glucose (from food intake) into cells, where it can be converted into energy. But without enough insulin in the body, glucose accumulates in the blood, where it is of little use. Even though there is plenty of glucose around, it can't get into the cells to feed them. The body's response is to drive up blood glucose even more by spurring the liver to break down its glucose stores and to make additional glucose from scratch.

As the body tries to clear the surplus glucose out of its blood through urination, a person may become dangerously dehydrated. At the same time, the body starts to liquidate fat deposits for energy. Fat is indeed rich in energy, but breaking down these stockpiles produces acidic side products called ketones. In high enough concentrations, ketones become toxic by making the blood more acidic. This imbalance is the crux of DKA and gives this complication its name. This increase in blood acidity can severely disrupt the finely tuned chemical processes in your body that keep you living and healthy.

Endler’s hypothesis was correct. Predation heavily influences guppy spot brightness. The
data from the second experiment especially supports this hypothesis. It shows that as predation
increases, spot brightness decreases. Endler’s greenhouse experiments show that without
predation, the spot brightness increases substantially over time. However, in the Cichlid ponds,
the spot brightness decreased substantially over time. The data he obtained from the field are also
consistent with the data form the lab. Finally, the data from the second experiment is very similar
and the same conclusions can be drawn.

Their fur is slick as they love being in the water, and they swim to cool off.” She explained that they are believed to mate at all times of the year, but mostly near the end of the wet season, as their gestation period is about four months and the females prefer to raise their young in the thick of the dry season where anacondas are less likely to strike, for anacondas mate and burrow in the mud during the dry season (Largest Snake). A dominant male claims his own stretch of bank and selected females and uses a special gland to mark his territory. The Snanker are thought to reach sexual maturity at around the age of four, and the dominant male chases young males off of his territory once they reach the age of two.

Both factors, osmolarity and volume, of blood have lasting effects on the body and the functions that occur throughout. Both factors change independent from each other, but work together to maintain an overall homeostasis within the body. For example if an individual were to work out and drank only water then the overall osmolarity of the blood would decrease due to the increase of water. However the volume will not change because the water lost in sweat would be replaced by the water consumed. The change in the osmolarity would lead to a reduction of vasopressin release and an increase in renin production. The renin production increase would promote the reabsorption of sodium, bringing the osmolarity back to an equilibrium state. This is a prime example of independent pathways that work together within the body in order to maintain homeostasis. 

To determine whether the mutation in a red yeast cell is in Ade1 or Ade2, the knowledge of complementation was used. The idea of complementation is that when two mutant haploid cells mate and produce a diploid, the ability of the diploid to produce functional, non-mutant proteins depends on whether the parent mutations were in the same gene or different genes. If the mutations were in the same gene, the diploid would inherit two dysfunctional alleles, and would therefore also be a mutant phenotype. However, if the mutations were in different genes, then the diploid would have one mutant allele and one functional allele for each of the mutant genes. The functional gene would be able to produce a functional product, and the diploid organism would not show the mutant phenotype. In this experiment, if the mutations of the haploid parents were both in Ade1 or Ade2, the diploid offspring would not have a functional copy of either enzyme, and thus still be red. If one mutation was in Ade1 and the other was in Ade2, the mutations would complement, and the diploid yeast would appear to be wild-type. Through complementation analysis, the unknown mutant gene in a red yeast colony can be determined.

I agree with you that it has a lot of potential for abuse. This is why I'm sort of iffy about genetic modification especially before children are even born. Do parents truly have the right to choose what kind of life their children will live? In today's world, it's such a big thing where people think parents should let their children be what they want to be as long as they're passionate about it. Yet genetic modification goes against this so called "norm." We contradict ourselves so much with basically everything we do yet we want to create more and more contradictions and controversies. It's pretty much stirring the pot when you think about it. We can't even fix our first world problems where so many people are starving and in poverty, yet we want to think about genetic modification? Seriously?