Law and Ethics in Healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Law and Ethics in Healthcare - Essay Example Therefore, this paper examines HIV/AIDS and confidentiality, which are healthcare issues arising from the conflict between law and ethic values. Salient ethical and legal concerns associated with HIV/AIDS and Confidentiality Safken & Frewer (2007) indicate that law and ethics postulate that medical information demands confidential treatment; thus, the law focuses on protecting such information. Consequently, care providers have an compulsion of promoting confidentiality in their activities. Indeed, HIV-related information has been subject to additional protections because of their sensitiveness. Care providers can only reveal such information based on court orders or the patient’s own will. Initially, patients are protected by regulations that promote personal privacy; hence, a care provider who releases such information infringes into one’s privacy. Although this is important in protecting patient against social exploitation, the process creates health concerns (McLean & Mason, 2003). This apparent since holding information is sometimes not rational as the practice may invite detrimental effects on other parties. According to McLean (2006), the responsibility of countering the harm from spreading to other parties binds care providers. For instance, care providers have a duty of protecting persons with high threats of infection. Additionally, concerns of promoting public health may demand a disclosure of such information. It is worth noting that disclosing information may be essential for individuals who engage in duties that present risks to their clients. These principles present strong moral and legal concerns to care providers in healthcare. Important primary ethical principles for managing the presented issues Healthcare providers can utilize concepts presented by some primary ethical principles in addressing this case. An ideal scheme that can inform healthcare providers is the standard of beneficence. Beneficence advocates for an idea of do ing good that demands one to analyze the matter critically to institute the best position of addressing the concerns (McLean, 2006). Importantly, the beneficence demands one to adopt the most genuine position while considering the necessity of bettering the condition of the involved parties. Since the HIV/AIDS and confidentiality subject, present a controversial environment, genuine assessment is the only solution to the case. This means that healthcare providers should access the implication of each procedure to identify the best approach to accord to the matter (Leslie & Bernard, 2001). Additionally the ideology of concert could be beneficial in addressing the concerns. This principle binds competent individuals with a responsibility of presenting their professional advice to the society (McLean & Mason, 2003). Professionals may adopt the knowledge of the principle in situations where parties involved fail to present genuine decision due to their state (Leslie & Bernard, 2001).The issues presented by the HIV/AIDS confidentiality do not entirely mean that the patients may not be in position of adopting reasonable decision as per the demands of the principle of consent. However, the rationality of the practice emerges by the fact that, the environment presented by the health issues raised may demand informed advice (Kaur, 2008). Consequently, healthcare provid

Hashemite Kingdom Of Jordan Tourism Essay

Hashemite Kingdom Of Jordan Tourism Essay This policy review aims to review the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its new industries in the current scenario to make it a happening tourist destination in the world. This review also includes substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to the topic of Development of New Industries in Jordan. The Kingdom of Jordan has been also review of its policies in Investments across the kingdom in hope to make the kingdom a world class destination. This review also refers to various types of Industries in tourism that are making way into the country even though traditionally well known for this various types of tourism in the region, recently Jordan has been trying to fully capitalize the various tourisms it has to offer by coming up with various Marketing policies and has been support its policies by investing heavily in and around various tourist destinations. The country has been able to successfully make inroads on its investments so far even though it ha s a troublesome neighborhood in the Middle East region. The kingdom has made profits even though they have dropped in numbers in comparison to the previous financial years, considering the Spring Uprising, Civil wars and Insurgency in the Arab world has led to concerns of security issues. Considering the fact that Jordan has been Pro-west country, it has managed to balance traditional values of Islam at the same time being liberal in its approach towards the development of country. Methodology: The methodology used to review the various types of industries and development policies is the use of Porters Diamond model approach to Industries with conditions, have been analyzed with also the role of Government and Chance contributing to the development of Tourism industry as a whole contributing to the development of the country. A cluster analysis has also been done of the various contributing factors for the development of the tourism industry in particular. 400px-The_Porter_Diamond.svg.png Tourism and the economy Tourism is major sector in Jordans economy. In 2010, 8 million tourists from various countries visited Jordan, with tourist spending amounting to about 3.5 billion USD. An additional US$1 billion was earned through medical tourism to the kingdom. In 2011, Jordanian tourism lost $1 Billion due to the instability across the region. Generating 2 billion and 423 million Jordanian Dinars ($3.461 billion), tourism is recognized as a major player of the Jordanian economy. The sector has been the key in attracting local, regional and international investment, in addition to creating jobs, and generating revenues. Its major tourist attractions include visiting historical sites, like the worldwide famous Petra (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, and one of New Seven Wonders of the World), the Jordan River, Mount Nebo, Madaba, numerous medieval mosques and churches, and unspoiled natural locations (as Wadi Rum and Jordans northern mountainous region in general), as well as observing cultural and religious sites and traditions. Jordan also offers health tourism, which is focused in the Dead Sea area, education tourism, hiking, Desert Skiing, Sky diving, Scuba diving in Aqabas coral reefs, pop-culture tourism and shopping tourism in Jordans cities. More than half of the approximate 4.8 Arab tourists in 2009, mainly from the GCC, said they plan to spend their holidays in Jordan. So The Kingdom of Jordan has different of Tourisms to offer to the world -Religious Tourism -Historical Tourism -Nature Exploration -Medical Tourism -Education Tourism -Shopping Tourism (Duty-Free) -Adventure Sports -Cultural Tourism Global Perspective Tourism is one of the biggest and most important movers of the world economy. The world tourism organization expects the number of tourists to grow to 935 million people in 2010. Statistics reveal that tourism accounts for 15% of global GDP, 7% of global investment, and almost 9.6% of total government expenditure. The sector has created 200 million jobs worldwide, representing 11% of the total global workforce. The UNWTO forecasts a growth in international tourists arrivals of between 4% and 5% in 2011, below the estimated percentage of growth rate in 2011 distributed by regions: World: 5% Europe: 4% Asia-Pacific: 7-9% Americas: 5-6% Africa: 6-7% Middle East: 8-10% Job opportunities Tourism accounts more than 40,000 direct jobs and an estimated 130,000 indirect jobs impacting the lives of more than 800,000 people. Current plans aim at raising direct tourism jobs to 60,000, in addition to creating 300,000 direct and indirect job opportunities in supporting sectors. Direct jobs in the tourism sector (2002-2010) The growth of the tourism sector has helped create and develop thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses around the Kingdom. It has also influenced important changes in Jordans work culture. Women currently constitute 10.0% of the current job total. Growth has also been reflected on the educational system, where hospitality is becoming a favorite subject for high school students. Graduates can pursue specialized education at the Jordan Applied University College of Hospitality and Tourism, in addition to a number of the Jordanian universities that teach the Hospitality specialty. Tourist numbers and expenditure levels The number of tourists visiting Jordan has been increasing steadily over the past few years. In 2010, overnight visitors totaled 4.55 million, while same day visitors reached 3.7 million. Focus on the quality of tourists (especially from Europe) has raised the number of nights spent in the Kingdom and increased tourism income to 2.423 billion Jordanian Dinars, a decrease of 17.2% from 2009. Income from tourism (2004-2010) Investment in the tourism sector This decade has witnessed a flurry of investment activity in the tourism sector to meet the increasing numbers of visitors to the Kingdom. Investment in tourism has totaled almost 2.9 billion Dinars between 1996 and 2009, with direct foreign investments constituting 53%. Investment levels in tourism (2004-2009) Jordan has been investing heavily in its tourist infrastructure in the form of luxury hotels, spas, resorts, and massive real estate projects, as The Abdali Urban Regeneration Project and the Marsa Zayed in Aqaba. Luxury residential housing like Sanaya Amman and the Living Wall are attracting vacationers to buy property in Jordan. Queen Alia International Airport is being expanded to handle passengers annually up to 9 million in the first phase; 12 million in the later phase. Tourism Development Currently USAID is an active partner in the development of the Jordan Tourism Industry with the continued support of the Jordan Tourism Development Project (Siyaha), currently in its second project lifecycle. Jordan Tourism Project (SIYAHA) Duration: 2005 2008 Funding: US$17,424,200 Implementing Partner: Chemonics International Jordan Tourism Project II (SIYAHA) Duration: 2008 2013 Funding: US$28 million (Estimated) Implementing Partner: Chemonics International With the establishment of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone, nearly 20 billion dollars have been invested in sole coastal city of Jordan. Luxurious resorts such as Saraya Aqaba and Tala Bay are being constructed with more in the pipleline like the $1 billion Ayla Oasis.[9] With Jordan becoming increasing popular as a cruising destination, a new and modern cruise ship terminal is being constructed in the Marsa Zayed project. Hotel rooms There are a total of 23,882 hotel rooms in Jordan, of which 6,697 are in 5-star hotels, 3,285 in 4-star hotels, and 3,132 in 3-star hotels. Several projects are underway that are expected to add 5,000 rooms by the year 2012, mostly in Aqaba and the Dead Sea. JORDAN TOURISM HOSPITALITY ANALYSIS The tourism cluster map is centered on these four pillars of tourism: Accommodation, Restaurant Food service, Transportation and Tourist Attractions. It includes small vendors to USAID. (J. FischerI. Khan, 2009) Tourism Cluster Map E-tourism Travel agencies Tour operators IFCs Jordan Tourism Board; Jordan Hotel Association; Jordan Society of Tourist and Travel Agents, Fair Trade Jordan Attractive tourism offerings: Historical tourism; Religious tourism Medical tourism; Eco-tourism Financial Services Government AGENCIES; Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Public Transport Regulatory Commission, Medical Tourism Directorate Maintain Services Restaurant food service Accommodation Hotels and Resorts Transportation Airlines, road system, railway, shipping Construction Industry International Organizations Technical Financial assistance Education institutions For example: Amman Hospitality College; Jordan University of Hospitality FACTOR Conditions Jordans tourism industry relies heavily upon its historical and natural resources. The country ranks higher than many of its peers on the quality of its historical as well as its natural heritage, as well as highly on the openness of its people to tourism and to foreigners. However, various threats to the tourism sector also exist. For example, high concentrations of tourists threaten Petra, and degradation and environmental concerns related to the Gulf of Aqaba are also rising. Ground transportation infrastructure plays a very important role in Jordans tourism. For one thing, it is the preferred means of entry to Jordan for 76% of foreign visitors. Jordan ranks lower on the quality of its ground transport than some of its leading regional neighbors. Some of the main problems the public transport sector faces are a very low level of coordination among transporters as well as an alarmingly high increase in accidents in recent years. The Public Transport Regulatory Commission was formed in 2001 specifically to oversee the public transport sector. The commission is currently addressing the problem of low-coordination by consolidating unprofitable routes. Presently, a total of 11 universities (including three state-owned), 10 colleges and 16 vocational training centers are involved in providing tourism specific education. However, various business surveys indicate that a majority of the industry respondents were not satisfied with the quality of graduates produced by these institutes. The skills shortage might be a reason why in 2008 foreigners constituted 18% of the overall tourist workforce, up from 10% in 2004. The Government is also cognizant of this fact, and therefore allows new businesses in Aqaba to hire foreigners, up to 70% of the workforce. RELATED AND SUPPORTING INDUSTRIES: The importance of a national strategy for tourism buttressed by a strong public and private collaboration and coordinated development. For instance, popular tourist sites need to be supported by information and good infrastructure in order to create a strong brand and to generate repeat visitors. Similarly, good hotels and high quality services should support a good marketing campaign. Hence, a national tourism strategy becomes imperative for coordinated development (JNCO, 2007). The GoJ analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the salient pillars of tourism, including accommodation, transport, food, tourism services, and activities for each of the before mentioned niche markets. Hotels and Restaurants Jordans hotels and restaurants employ the bulk of the labor force working in tourism. In 2008, they contributed 1.7% of GDP (ABC, 2009). Hotel accommodations range from one- to five star hotels. In 2008, five-star hotels accounted for almost half of the total nights spent. The hotel sector has managed to attract a substantial amount of investment in recent years. Catholic Student Bay (US$500M), the Ayla Oasis project (US$750M), the Saraya Aqaba project (UD$362M), the Sun Days Water Park (US$60M), the Aqaba Ishkar Kempinski Hotel (US$60M), the Royal Metropolis-Jordan Gate and Royal Villages of Amman (US$1B), the Dead Sea Holiday Inn Hotel (US$21M), and the Crown Plaza Hotel at the Dead Sea (US$49M).Many international hotel chains are competing in the industry and include some award-winning spas near the Dead Sea. In recent years, the tourism industry has gone through changing dynamics, where restaurants are becoming the high growth segment, while hotels are showing stagnancy. 40% increasing growth in the restaurant sector indicates a rising appetite of Jordanians for e ating out. A wide variety of international restaurant franchises have entered the market, which suggests increased competition in the industry. The stagnancy in the hotel industry might be explained by low occupancy rates or by the fact that Jordanian hotels are highly dependent upon European tourists for its demand. This is a market segment that is very vulnerable to changes in perceptions about Jordans security emanating from regional instability. The GoJ has been encouraging hotel construction, with special emphasis in the Aqaba specialized economic zone (JNCO, 2007). Health Tourism: Health Tourism is a core part of the tourism cluster. During the 1970s, Arab patients from around the region started arriving in Jordan for medical treatment. Today, Jordans health sector has a reputation for subspecialties, such as cardiovascular surgery, transplantation, cancer treatment, and plastic surgery. The private sector accounts for 54% of the hospitals and 46% of the beds available. It is soon to be a regional hub to medical tourist. The GoJ has been very responsive towards the needs of the industry. In 1998, the MoH established an office at the Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) to assist foreigners with immigration, information, and transportation to hospitals. Currently, the Medical Tourism Directorate follows up on complaints from foreign patients and works in collaboration with an association representing doctors and private hospitals. The Investment Law of 1987 also provides tax incentives for investing into the health sector. The health industry, however, is suffering from stagnation. The total number of foreign patients increased only modestly from 95,000 to 108,000, between 1998 and 2005 (WHO, 2009). Given low occupancy rates in private hospitals (around 50%); this stagnation is not due to supply side constraints. Specialized hospitals are running at 70% occupancy (JNCO, 2007). Despite the potential of Jordans health tourism sector, there are threats on the horizon, including a shortage of qualified nurses due to brain drain. Also, as the Dubai Health Care city establishes itself, it will target the same labor market that has traditionally made up the bulk of Jordans health tourism industry. This is likely to double in occupancy as by 2015 200,000 to 250,000 patients are likely to visit Jordan. DEMAND CONDITIONS The industry shows a cyclical pattern in its demand, with the peak tourist season beginning at the end of July and lasting through the end of August, coinciding with school holidays. Most visitors come from Arab countries. Within the Archaeological Tourism segment, the demand is somewhat concentrated on Petra, which accounted for 26% of the foreign visitors who visited Jordan historical sites in 2008. This lack of diversification in terms of origin countries, as well as preferred tourist destinations, puts the industry at risk, while at the same time the lack of sophistication in demand discourages the development of more value-added options. To elaborate further, while Arab visitors constitute 68% of foreign tourists, they contribute only 43% of the overall tourism receipts. One reason is that (in 2008) Arab visitors stayed an average of 3.9 days, compared to European visitors who stayed 5.0 days. Furthermore, in terms of nights spent, 30% of the Arab nights were at the cheapest accommodation available. In contrast, 43% of European nights were spent in five-star hotels, indicating that the Europeans have a much larger and more sophisticated demand than Arab visitors. In broader terms, Europeans accounted for 54% of all the nights spent in Jordanian hotels rated 3 stars and above. European tourists also account for 91% of the nights stayed in camp sites. With less than 15% of occupancy rates, camp sites are the most underutilized of all Jordanian accommodation options. Although the MoTAs National Tourism Strategy 2004-2010 did target niche markets, such as adventure tourism, cruising, and eco-tourism, occupancy rates of camps show no improvement between 2004 and 2007.47 One of the challenges faced by Jordan is its location in a volatile region; it is very vulnerable to losing its customers, if the region experiences political turmoil. This highlights the need for Jordan to develop a sophisticated local demand that could support these high-value added businesses during times of turmoil. CONTEXT FOR FIRM STRATEGY AND RIVALRY On the context for firm strategy and rivalry, Jordan ranks highly compared to regional competitors on key metrics, such as visa requirements, government prioritization, government expenditure, and effective marketing and branding. The GoJ aims to work with the private sector to strengthen the industrys institutional and regulatory framework and thereby improve the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Nonetheless, the cluster can better coordinate activities across the tourism value chain and increase representation at international travel and tourism fairs. Further, the cluster can explore tourism markets for athletic events and conferences, which are both currently untapped. The Jordan tourism cluster is quite competitive with more than 400 hotels, over 350 travel agencies, about 70 tour operators, and an unaccounted number of tour guides. In 1998, the MoTA established the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) to market the cluster. The JTB is a joint initiative between the public and private sectors with an 80% and 20% ownership, respectively. By running a marketing campaign and providing information to cluster members, the JTB acts as a liaison among the different tourism businesses in the cluster value chain to promote the cluster. The GoJ has always been very receptive to foreign investments. Jordan ranks 44 on the Business Impact of FDI ahead of Israel, UAE, Morocco, and Egypt, which rank 48, 49, 74, and, respectively (WEF, 2009). The JTB, in cooperation with the Jordan Investment Board (JIB), initiated the Tourism Investment Map, a regional map of investment opportunities in SMEs across the country in the tourism and hospitality sectors. The GoJ has upgraded the cluster by enforcing standards for tourism vehicle requirements and other criteria for tour operators. The Touristic Specialized Transports Regulation requires that transport companies use technically reliable and state-of-the-art vehicles for their tourism operations. Also, the Ministry of Transport lists other criteria by which tour operators need to abide. The Role of Government The role of government bears mention, as a supportive and efficient bureaucracy is generally considered a key component of successful development of the tourism industry. Jordan scored well (30th overall) on its TT regulatory framework. This was driven primarily by its performance on safety and security (19th) and prioritization of TT strategies (17th). In fact, Jordan scored 7th in overall government expenditure on travel and tourism. The most notable change for the better in recent years is that the government appears to have recognized the importance of tourism as an economic driver and, while it has handled the implementation of its tourism strategies imperfectly, it is at least taking steps in the right direction. Additionally, proposed changes in the regulatory environment should enhance competition in the transport sector (especially in the deregulation of the airline sector), ultimately increasing quality and driving down costs. Despite the positive support offered by the government to the tourism sector, this support is not yet translating into a constructive relationship between the public and private sectors. Over 75% of the industry believes that government bureaucracy is holding back the industry over 80% state that government regulations are a direct obstacle to the industry or serve no clear purpose. When asked if government regulation is getting better, only 19% indicated that it is improving. A few areas in which the government could still play a more productive role include the amount and quality of training delivered to key personnel, especially guides; more attention paid to some of the smaller but still important sites that will ultimately drive the countrys ability to retain tourists for a longer period of time; and a stronger overall promotion effort to communicate Jordans offer and to build the countrys brand. This includes the development of new products, research on new markets and niches, the devotion of more resources to international marketing, and greater focus on high potential markets. A final consideration is to enhance the frequency, quality, and results of public-private dialogue. The JNCT survey revealed that 66% of respondents resolved issues through personal connections (including individual government officials), against only 24% that utilized an industry association or formal public-private dialogue mechanism. Chance: Due to heavy insurgency in the neighboring countries of Jordan like Iraq, Syria and Lebanon the businesses in those countries may set up firms in Jordan that will make Jordan the gateway to Middle East. This may cause rivalry with many local businesses but at the same time will increase competitiveness. This will be also the reason for people who want to tour Middle East region may prefer due to the security. The inflow of refugees from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria will fill the demand gap for low-cost labor for the domestic market that will drive the development growth in the country. Due to Shortage of natural resources like water and fuel, Jordan is focusing on Nuclear Energy to meet it growing domestic demand needs by mining of uranium. Due high Generic drug pricing the need for pharmaceutical raw material and search for cheaper source can be a chance for the increasing the pharmaceutical industry production in Jordan. Jordan Tourism Statistics: Types of Tourism per Area Types of Tourism per Area History Culture Eco Nature Religion Faith Leisure wellness Fun Adventure Amman x x x X As-Salt x x Madaba x x Um Ar-Rasas x x Mount Nebo x x Jordan Valley The Dead Sea x x x x Karak x Petra x x x X Aqaba x x x x X Jerash x x X Ajlun x x Um Al-Jimal x Pella x x UImm Qays x x Shawbak x Desert Umayyad Casteles x Dana x X Wadi Mujib x X Wadi Rum x x X Azraq Shwmari x X Dibeen Forest x Hammat Maà ­n x Mukawir x Anjara x Tall Mar Elias x Total Number of Arrivals and Tourists Total Number of Arrivals and Tourists 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Total Number of Arrivals 4,677,018 4,599,243 5,586,659 5,817,370 6,712,804 6,528,626 Tourist (Overnight visitors) 2,384,474 2,353,088 2,852,809 2,986,586 3,546,990 3,430,960 Same Day Visitors 2,292,544 2,246,155 2,733,850 2,830,784 3,165,814 3,097,666 Tourism Incom/MJD 743.,2 752.6 943 1,021.6 1,460.8 1,638.9 No. of Package Tours tourists 137,660 145,601 254,145 338,787 278,341 359,625 Average Length of Stay 4 4.4 5 4.5 4.2 4.4 www.jordaninvestment.com:ecruos Total Number of Arrivals and Tourists Total Number of Arrivals and Tourists 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Total Number of Arrivals 4,677,018 4,599,243 5,586,659 5,817,370 6,712,804 6,528,626 Tourist (Overnight visitors) 2,384,474 2,353,088 2,852,809 2,986,586 3,546,990 3,430,960 Same Day Visitors 2,292,544 2,246,155 2,733,850 2,830,784 3,165,814 3,097,666 Tourism Income/MJD 743.,2 752.6 943 1,021.6 1,460.8 1,638.9 No. of Package Tours tourists 137,660 145,601 254,145 338,787 278,341 359,625 Average Length of Stay 4 4.4 5 4.5 4.2 4.4 www.jordaninvestment.com:ecruoS Recommendations Jordan needs to improve supply-side factors like tourism education, training outputs, and upgrading travel and utilize information technology to reach target market. Tourism sector is labor-intensive, which demands large number of well-trained young population. It means, they should have good senses of service and be relatively well-educated. Although several universities and many intuitions provide hospitality courses and training for people, the teaching qualities are uneven. So enhancing education quality is the key to improve the tourism competitiveness in global market. The Kingdom of Jordan is a distinctive destination which offers diverse, and the year-round tourist experiences can enrich the lives of Jordanians and visitors. It is necessary to improve the overall competitiveness of Jordans tourism industry and enhance the tourist experiences through innovation in product development, better position and promote the tourism offering to global market so that Jordan can attract more foreign customers who have the strong purchasing power and drive better business performance in Jordan. Although the Kingdom receives visitors from countries far away like Brazil, Australia, Korea and Japan, it is necessary to explore new markets throughout the world including China, Russia and other countries to increase the number of visitors. Those visitors from usually prefer to visit more than one destination at a time. Also, it should minimize the seasonal patterns of tourist arrivals to establish Jordan as a unique all-year-around diverse destination. Turkey had witnessed a significant growth in the number of Arab tourists in the past few years,  and it had succeeded in increasing tourism revenues from $12 billion in 2002 to $23 billion in 2011. If Jordan and Turkey have potential cooperation in the tourism sector and develop joint packages for long-haul tourists in near future, it will attract more visitors all over the world. Turkish carriers operate direct flights to these countries, which will help give tourists the option of visiting Jordan in the same trip. Bolstering cooperation between Arab countries and Turkey in tourism could encourage more investment in this sector in Jordan.

Does Abortion Have Severe Psychological Effects? Essays -- essays rese

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by destruction of a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus before birth, prior to the time when the fetus attains viability, or capacity for life outside the uterus (Encyclopedia, 1995, p.43). Currently almost twenty-five percent of pregnancies in the United States are aborted. About one forth of people who abort are teenagers, fifty-seven percent are younger than 25, and almost eighty percent are unmarried. During the first trimester is when most of the abortions take place. Only about ten percent are performed later in the pregnancy (Slife, 1998, p.329). Abortions go back as far as Ancient Greece where it was used as a type of population control. Then in the Roman Times men had total control over the procedure. â€Å"Man could give law-enforced command that his wife have an abortion, or he could punish or divorce his wife for having one without his consent† (Encyclopedia, 1995, p.43).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Today many people ask the question, does abortion have severe psychological effects? People that are pro-life claim that most women who abort their unborn child suffer from many negative effects, such as guilty feelings, anxiety, depression, loss, anger and even suicide. In one case a woman had an abortion assuming that it would take away all of the stress of being pregnant and thinking about the consequences of having a child. Afterwards she said, â€Å"I was unprepared for the maze of emotions that hit me after I had the procedure. Instead of feeling relieved, I was awash in anxiety and confusion† (Lawlor, 2002, par.3). The disorder of having negative effects after an abortion is called Post Abortion Syndrome or PAS. In order to tell if a woman has PAS she has to be completely honest with herself and admit the feelings that she has. The symptoms that most women have are strong feelings of guilt and confusion. Some cases are much more extreme, for example, there was a seventeen year old who developed lethargy, malaise, and vomiting. Doctors where unable to reach a conclusion about her condition until the anniversary of her abortion when she experienced overt psychosis. Mental examinations also revealed signs of hallucinations, as well as psychotic thought processes. Research has shown that in most cases women will go on and say they are fine about the whole thing, and many years later be ... ...then you will not even think twice about having one. I don’t agree with abortions at a certain extent. If I got pregnant I am not sure what I would do because I wouldn’t want to grow up that fast, and I would want to finish college and get a good job that way I know for sure I could support my child like I would want to, but if I did have a good job and me and my boyfriend had a steady relationship, then abortion wouldn’t even cross my mind. 4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Speckhand and Rue’s proposal that post abortion syndrome occurs in some women following abortion? I think they did a very good job of describing what post abortion is and what affects it has on women, but I think they could have done a better job of what causes women to have post abortion like Adler did in his argument. References Encyclopedia Americana. (1995). Definition of Abortion. (pp.43). Danbury, CT: Groiler inc. Lawlor, Jessica. (2002). Long Term Physiological and Psychological Effects of Abortion on Women. Retrieved March 21, 2001 from http://www.cirtl.org/syndrome.htm Slife, B., Ed. (1998). Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Psychological Issues, 10th ed. (pp.329-350). Gui

Frankensteins Cat Essay

In China, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, a new industry is taking shape: the mass production of mutant mice. Peek into the 45,000 mouse cages at Shanghai’s Fudan University and you’ll see a growing collection of misfits. By randomly disabling the rodents’ genes, the scientists here are churning out hundreds of odd animals, assembly-line style. They have created mice studded with skin tumors and mice that grow tusks. There’s a mouse with male-pattern baldness, hair everywhere save for a lonely bare spot on its head. Some of the mice have strange behavioral quirks—they endlessly bury marbles, for instance, or make only left turns. One strain ages at warp speed. Another can’t feel pain. While some of the rodents have obvious abnormalities, others reveal their secrets over time. One variety appears normal on the outside, with thick white fur and healthy pink ears and noses. But the animals are klutzes. They are clumsy and spectacularly uncoordinated. They fail miserably when researchers put them through their paces at a special rodent boot camp. In one test, the mice are tasked with standing on top of a rotating rod for as long as they can manage, the rodent equivalent of a logrolling challenge. It’s not an easy undertaking, but normal mice eventually find their footing. The mutant mice never do. They also have trouble balancing on a narrow wooden beam and keeping their grip when suspended, upside down, from a wire screen. And they have strange gaits—taking abnormally wide steps and holding their tails at odd angles, curved up toward the ceiling, instead of letting them simply drag along the floor behind them, as mice usually do. Even stranger, perhaps, are the Lonely Hearts Club mice. The males of this strain look like regular rodents, but the females consistently refuse to mate with them. The poor guys, lacking some certain je ne sais quoi, simply have no sex appeal, and they are rejected time and time again. These mice are just a small sample of the more than 500 different kinds of mutants the Fudan team has created. Ultimately, the researchers hope to create 100,000 strains of modified mice, each eccentric in its own way. It would be enough to fill a carnival sideshow thousands of times over. * * * As long as we’re dreaming up animal sideshows, we needn’t stop with peculiar mice. Science has given us a whole new toolbox for tinkering with life, and we have the power to modify animals in profound new ways. We are editing their genetic codes, rebuilding their broken bodies, and supplementing their natural senses. Headlines frequently herald the birth of strange new creatures: Bionic beetles! Glowing cats! Spider goats! Roborats! The breakthroughs are simultaneously astounding and puzzling. What are these creatures exactly? What do they look like? Who’s creating them, and why? And are these animals really so novel? Indeed, we have a long history of refashioning animal bodies. Take the varied members of the species Canis lupus familiaris—the modern dog—which are products of millennia of life with humans and bear little resemblance to their ancestors, gray wolves. Exactly how this dog domestication began is a subject of intense debate. Some scientists suggest that we deliberately set out to acquire canine companions, adopting wild wolf pups. Others hypothesize that hungry wolves, attracted to the bones, trash, and scraps produced by early humans, approached our camps on their own terms, and that our tolerance of the least threatening interlopers gave rise to future generations of human-friendly canines. Either way, as wolves became part of human society, moving from cold ground to warm hearth, they lost many of the traits they needed to survive in the wild. Their bodies and heads shrank, their faces and jaws grew more compact, and their teeth decreased in size. As our relationship with canines developed, we began to breed them more carefully, molding dogs that excelled at specific tasks. We created the bulky, barrel-chested mastiff to guard our homes, and the dachshund, a wiggly salami of a dog, to shimmy into badger burrows. The diversity among modern dogs is so astounding that the thirty thousand dogs that strut their canine stuff at Crufts, the largest dog show in the world, don’t even look like members of the same species. One year, the â€Å"Best in Show† contenders included King, a hound with a deer’s build, all legs and lean muscle, and Ricky, a tiny black-and-white fluff ball who could stand easily underneath King’s smooth brown belly. They shared the ring with Donny—a standard poodle whose shaved gray haunches were set off by a thick white mane—and Cruella, an Old English sheepdog whose long, shaggy hair obscured all but the black dot that presumably served as her nose. Today, thanks to us, dogs are the most physically diverse species on Earth. We’ve reshaped other species, too, turning scrawny chickens into plump broiler birds and bristlyhaired wild sheep into producers of soft wool. The list goes on and on. We learned to breed animals that suited our every need, creating hunters, herders, guardians, food sources, and companions. Over the course of generations, the members of many species diverged from their wild ancestors and took their place in a human world. But selective breeding was a blunt instrument, one that required us to transform animals using educated guesswork, breeding desirable hounds together, over and over again, until a puppy we liked squirmed into the world. It took thousands of years to turn wolves into dogs. Now we can create novel organisms in years, months, even days. Today, the tools of molecular biology allow us to target one specific gene, to instantly turn it on or off, to silence or amplify its effects. For instance, the researchers at Fudan University are creating their stunning array of strange mice simply by knocking out a single gene at a time. To do so, they’re relying on a special genetic tool called a transposon or a â€Å"jumping gene,† a segment of DNA capable of hopping around the genome. When the scientists inject a transposon into a mouse embryo, this foreign piece of DNA inserts itself into a random place in the rodent’s genome, disabling whatever gene it finds there. But the real beauty of the system is that when this mouse grows up and mates, the transposon jumps to a different location in the genome of its pups, sabotaging a new gene. With each mating, researchers have no idea where the transposon will end up, what gene it will disrupt, or what the ultimate effects will be. It’s like throwing darts at a genetic dartboard. Blindfolded. Only when the pups are born, and start exhibiting various abnormalities, do the scientists learn what part of the genome has gone haywire. The approach is allowing the researchers to create cages upon cages of novel mutants, simply by playing matchmaker between their amorous rodents. In some cases, the scientists are making furry freaks faster than they can figure out what’s wrong with them. We can also recombine genes in ways that nature never would—just consider a very curious cat skulking about New Orleans. With downy orange fur and a soft pink nose, the feline looks like your average tabby. But flick on a black light, and the cat becomes Mr. Green Genes, his nose turning from soft pink to electric lime, due to a bit of jellyfish DNA tucked into each of his cells. The insides of his ears and the whites of his eyes glow brightly, his face emerging from the dark like a modern-day Cheshire cat. (His son, Kermit, also glows green. ) Meanwhile, nearly two thousand miles away, a barn in Logan, Utah, is home to a strange herd of goats. Thanks to a pair of genes borrowed from a spider, each female goat produces milk that’s chockfull of silk proteins. When the milk is processed in the lab, scientists can extract the spider proteins and spin them into silk. Genetics isn’t the only field providing us with the power to reengineer other species. Advances in electronics and computing make it possible to merge animal bodies with machines, to use tiny electrodes to hijack a rat’s brain and guide the rodent, like a remote-controlled toy, through a complicated obstacle course. Breakthroughs in materials science and veterinary surgery are helping us build bionic limbs for injured animals, and we can train monkeys to control robotic arms with their thoughts. Today, our grandest science fiction fantasies are becoming reality. * * * Some of us may find our growing control over living, breathing beings to be unsettling. After all, biotechnology is the stuff of dystopian nightmares, and many an apocalyptic scenario has been constructed around crazy chimeras or world-conquering cyborgs. Ethicists and activists worry about whether we should be altering other species when we can’t possibly get their consent. Some say that manipulating the planet’s wild things—whether we’re inserting genes or electrodes—is profoundly unnatural, causes animal suffering, and turns other life-forms into commodities. Critics worry that our effort to remake the world’s fauna is the worst example of human hubris, the expression of an arrogant desire to play God. It’s true that remaking other species according to our own wants and needs doesn’t necessarily put animal welfare first. Selective breeding hasn’t always turned out well for animals—we’ve saddled dog breeds with all sorts of hereditary diseases and created turkeys with such gigantic breasts that they can barely walk. And of course, biotechnology gives us new ways to do damage. The Fudan University scientists have created mouse embryos with defects so severe that they die in the womb. Some of their mutant mice are prone to tumors, or kidney disease, or neurological problems. One strain, unable to absorb nutrients from food, essentially starves to death. In fact, a whole industry has sprung up to sell diseased lab animals to scientists, with numerous biotech companies hawking their unique creations. In October 2011, many of these companies converged on St. Pete Beach, Florida, for an international meeting of scientists who work with genetically modified organisms. Representatives from various biotech firms held court from booths ringing a hotel ballroom, advertising animals that had been engineered to suffer from all sorts of medical afflictions. One company was selling pigs with cystic fibrosis and cancer; a brochure from another outlined eleven available strains of rodents, from the NSE-p25 mouse, designed to display Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, to the 11BHSD2 mouse, which has a tendency to drop dead of heart failure. (And just in case nothing there caught your fancy, one company’s poster promised, â€Å"You design the experiment, we’ll design the mice. †) These companies aren’t making sickly animals purely to be cruel, of course; studying these creatures yields valuable insight into human disease. That’s good news for us, but little consolation for a tumor-riddled rodent. If there is peril here, there is also great promise. Biotechnology could do more for animals than it’s given credit for. Sure, we can make animals sick, but we can also choose to deploy our speciesshaping powers to help other species survive and thrive, to create healthier, happier, fitter critters, and some scientists are doing just that. With the sophisticated techniques at our fingertips, we may even be able to undo some of the damage we’ve done to other species, alleviating genetic disorders in dogs, for instance, or bringing wild animal populations back from the brink of extinction. Some forwardthinking philosophers are dreaming of more extreme interventions, such as boosting the brainpower of apes, and using genetic modification and electronic enhancement to help animals transcend the limits of their own bodies. Right now all the options are open. Though biotechnology’s strange new creatures are being created in the world’s labs, they don’t tend to stay there very long, and there are already cutting-edge animals living in fields, homes, and nature preserves across America. Before long, we may all be able to shop for animals the same way that scientists in Florida shopped for carefully engineered mice. Imagine a future in which we can each pick out the perfect animal from a catalogue of endless options. We could create something for everyone. Avid nighttime reader? How about your own Mr. Green Genes so you can stay up late, reading by the light of the cat? For the twelve-year-old who has everything, skip the toy cars and planes at Christmas and wrap up a remote-controlled rodent. Equestrians could order up a foal with the same genes as the winner of last year’s Kentucky Derby, while sprinters could get themselves a golden retriever whose artificial carbon-fiber legs would allow it to run as fast as a greyhound. The tools of biotechnology are becoming increasingly accessible to the public; future generations of animal lovers may be able to design their own creatures without fancy lab equipment or advanced scientific training. * * * In the pages that follow, we’ll go on a journey from petri dish to pet store, seeking out the revolutionary breeds of beasts that are taking their places in the world. We’ll venture from the rocky shores of California to the dusty fields of Texas, from the canine clones that live in Korean labs to the pets that sleep in our homes. We’ll delve into genes and brains, into work that seems frivolous and projects that are anything but. We’ll meet an engineer who is turning beetles into stunt planes and a biologist who believes cloning just might save endangered species. And, of course, we’ll come to know the animals themselves—from Jonathan, a sad sack of a seal with hundreds of online friends, to Artemis, a potentially life-saving goat whose descendants could one day take over Brazil. Along the way, we’ll puzzle through some larger questions. We’ll probe how our contemporary scientific techniques are different from what’s come before and whether they represent a fundamental change in our relationship with other species. We’ll consider the relationship we have with animals and the one we’d like to have. Most of us care deeply about some form of animal life, whether it’s the cat or dog curled up on the couch—60 percent of Americans share their homes with pets of one species or another—the chickens laying our eggs, or some exotic predator fighting to survive as its habitat disappears. Now that we can sculpt life into an endless parade of forms, what we choose to create reveals what it is we want from other species—and what we want for them. But even if you feel no special affection for the creatures with whom we share this planet, our reinvention of animals matters for us, too. It provides a peek into our own future, at the ways we may start to enhance and alter ourselves. Most of all, our grand experiments reveal how entangled the lives of human and nonhuman animals have become, how intertwined our fates are. Enterprising scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers are dreaming up all sorts of projects that could alter the course of our collective future. So what does biotechnology really mean for the world’s wild things? And what do our brave new beasts say about us? Our search for answers begins with a tank of glowing fish. 1. Go Fish To an aspiring animal owner, Petco presents an embarrassment of riches. Here, in the basement of a New York City store—where the air carries the sharp tang of hay and the dull musk of rodent dander —is a squeaking, squealing, almost endless menagerie of potential pets. There are the spindly-legged lizards scuttling across their sand-filled tanks; the preening cockatiels, a spray of golden feathers atop their heads; and, of course, the cages of pink-nosed white mice training for a wheel-running marathon. There are chinchillas and canaries, dwarf hamsters, tree frogs, bearded dragons, red-footed tortoises, red-bellied parrots, and African fat-tailed geckoes. But one of these animals is not like the others. The discerning pet owner in search of something new and different merely has to head to the aquatic display and keep walking past the speckled koi and fantail bettas, the crowds of goldfish and minnows. And there they are, cruising around a small tank hidden beneath the stairs: inch-long candy-colored fish in shades of cherry, lime, and tangerine. Technically, they are zebrafish ( Danio rerio), which are native to South Asian lakes and rivers and usually covered with black and white stripes. But these swimmers are adulterated with a smidgen of something extra. The Starfire Red fish contain a dash of DNA from the sea anemone; the Electric Green, Sunburst Orange, Cosmic Blue, and Galactic Purple strains all have a nip of sea coral. These borrowed genes turn the zebrafish fluorescent, so under black or blue lights they glow. These are GloFish, America’s first genetically engineered pets. Though we’ve meddled with many species through selective breeding, these fish mark the beginning of a new era, one in which we have the power to directly manipulate the biological codes of our animal friends. Our new molecular techniques change the game. They allow us to modify species quickly, rather than over the course of generations; doctor a single gene instead of worrying about the whole animal; and create beings that would never exist in nature, mixing and matching DNA from multiple species into one great living mash-up. We have long desired creature companions tailored to our exact specifications. Science is finally making that precision possible. * * * Though our ancestors knew enough about heredity to breed better working animals, our ability to tinker with genes directly is relatively new. After all, it wasn’t until 1944 that scientists identified DNA as the molecule of biological inheritance, and 1953 that Watson and Crick deduced DNA’s double helical structure. Further experiments through the ’50s and ’60s revealed how genes work inside a cell. For all its seeming mystery, DNA has a straightforward job: It tells the body to make proteins. A strand of DNA is composed of individual units called nucleotides, strung together like pearls on a necklace. There are four distinct types of nucleotides, each containing a different chemical base. Technically, the bases are called adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, but they usually go by their initials: A, T, C, and G. What we call a â€Å"gene† is merely a long sequence of these As, Ts, Cs, and Gs. The order in which these letters appear tells the body which proteins to make—and where and when to make them. Change some of the letters and you can alter protein manufacturing and the ultimate characteristics of an organism. Once we cracked the genetic code, it wasn’t long before we figured out how to manipulate it. In the 1970s, scientists set out to determine whether it was possible to transfer genes from one species into another. They isolated small stretches of DNA from Staphylococcus—the bacteria that cause staph infections—and the African clawed frog. Then they inserted these bits of biological code into E. coli. The staph and frog genes were fully functional in their new cellular homes, making E. coli the world’s first genetically engineered organism. Mice were up next, and in the early 1980s, two labs reported that they’d created rodents carrying genes from viruses and rabbits. Animals such as these mice, which contain a foreign piece of DNA in their genomes, are known as transgenic, and the added genetic sequence is called a transgene. Encouraged and inspired by these successes, scientists started moving DNA all around the animal kingdom, swapping genes among all sorts of swimming, slithering, and scurrying creatures. Researchers embarking on these experiments had multiple goals in mind. For starters, they simply wanted to see what was possible. How far could they push these genetic exchanges? What could they do with these bits and pieces of DNA? There was also immense potential for basic research; taking a gene from one animal and putting it into another could help researchers learn more about how it worked and the role it played in development or disease. Finally, there were promising commercial applications, an opportunity to engineer animals whose bodies produced highly desired proteins or creatures with economically valuable traits. (In one early project, for instance, researchers set out to make a leaner, faster-growing pig. ) Along the way, geneticists developed some neat tricks, including figuring out how to engineer animals that glowed. They knew that some species, such as the crystal jellyfish, had evolved this talent on their own. One moment, the jellyfish is an unremarkable transparent blob; the next it’s a neon-green orb floating in a dark sea. The secret to this light show is a compound called green fluorescent protein (GFP), naturally produced by the jellyfish, which takes in blue light and reemits it in a kiwi-colored hue. Hit the jelly with a beam of blue light, and a ring of green dots will suddenly appear around its bell-shaped body, not unlike a string of Christmas lights wrapped around a tree. When scientists discovered GFP, they began to wonder what would happen if they took this jellyfish gene and popped it into another animal. Researchers isolated and copied the jellyfish’s GFP gene in the lab in the 1990s, and then the real fun began. When they transferred the gene into roundworms, rats, and rabbits, these animals also started producing the protein, and if you blasted them with blue light, they also gave off a green glow. For that reason alone, GFP became a valuable tool for geneticists. Researchers testing a new method of genetic modification can practice with GFP, splicing the gene into an organism’s genome. If the animal lights up, it’s obvious that the procedure worked. GFP can also be coupled with another gene, allowing scientists to determine whether the gene in question is active. (A green glow means the paired gene is on. ) Scientists discovered other potential uses, too. Zhiyuan Gong, a biologist at the National University of Singapore, wanted to use GFP to turn fish into living pollution detectors, swimming canaries in underwater coal mines. He hoped to create transgenic fish that would blink on and off in the presence of toxins, turning bright green when they were swimming in contaminated water. The first step was simply to make fish that glowed. His team accomplished that feat in 1999 with the help of a common genetic procedure called microinjection. Using a tiny needle, he squirted the GFP gene directly into some zebrafish embryos. In some of the embryos, this foreign bit of biological code managed to sneak into the genome, and the fish gave off that telltale green light. In subsequent research, the biologists also made strains in red—thanks to a fluorescent protein from a relative of the sea anemone—and yellow, and experimented with adding these proteins in combination. One of their published papers showcases a neon rainbow of fish that would do Crayola proud. * To Richard Crockett, the co-founder of the company that sells GloFish, such creatures have more than mere scientific value—they have an obvious aesthetic beauty. Crockett vividly remembers learning about GFP in a biology class. He was captivated by an image of brain cells glowing green and red, thanks to the addition of the genes for GFP and a red fluorescent protein. Crockett was a premed student, but he was also an entrepreneur. In 1998, at the age of twenty-one, he and a childhood friend, Alan Blake, launched an online education company. By 2000, the company had become a casualty of the dot-com crash. As the two young men cast about for new business ideas, Crockett thought back to the luminescent brain cells and put a proposal to Blake: What if they brought the beauty of fluorescence genes to the public by selling glowing, genetically modified fish? At first, Blake, who had no background in science, thought his friend was joking. But when he discovered that Gong and other scientists were already fiddling with fish, he realized that the idea wasn’t far-fetched at all. Blake and Crockett wouldn’t even need to invent a new organism—they’d just need to take the shimmering schools of transgenic fish out of the lab and into our home tanks. The pair founded Yorktown Technologies to do just that, and Blake took the lead during the firm’s early years, setting up shop in Austin, Texas. He licensed the rights to produce the fish from Gong’s lab and hired two commercial fish farms to breed the pets. (Since the animals pass their fluorescence genes on to their offspring, all Blake needed to create an entire line of neon pets was a few starter adults. ) He and his partner dubbed them GloFish, though the animals aren’t technically glow-in-thedark—at least, not the same way that a set of solar system stickers in a child’s bedroom might be. Those stickers, and most other glow-in-the-dark toys, work through a scientific property known as phosphorescence. They absorb and store light, reemitting it gradually over time, as a soft glow that’s visible when you turn out all the lights. GloFish, on the other hand, are fluorescent, which means that they absorb light from the environment and beam it back out into the world immediately. The fish appear to glow in a dark room if they’re under a blue or black light, but they can’t store light for later —turn the artificial light off, and the fish stop shining. Blake was optimistic about their prospects. As he explains, â€Å"The ornamental fish industry is about new and different and exciting varieties of fish. † And if new, different, and exciting is what you’re after, what more could you ask for than an animal engineered to glow electric red, orange, green, blue, or purple thanks to a dab of foreign DNA? Pets are products, after all, subject to the same marketplace forces as toys or clothes. Whether it’s a puppy or a pair of heels, we’re constantly searching for the next big thing. Consider the recent enthusiasm for â€Å"teacup pigs†Ã¢â‚¬â€tiny swine cute enough to make you swear off pork chops forever. Harold Herzog, a psychologist at Western Carolina University who specializes in human-animal interactions, has studied the way our taste in animals changes over time. When Herzog consulted the registry of the American Kennel Club, he found that dog breed choices fade in and out of fashion the same way that baby names do. One minute, everyone is buying Irish setters, naming their daughters Heather, and listening to â€Å"Bennie and the Jets†Ã¢â‚¬â€welcome to 1974! —and then it’s on to the next great trend. Herzog discovered that between 1946 and 2003, eight breeds—Afghan hounds, chow chows, Dalmatians, Dobermans, Great Danes, Old English sheepdogs, rottweilers, and Irish setters—went through particularly pronounced boom and bust cycles. Registrations for these canines would skyrocket, and then, as soon as they reached a certain threshold of popularity, people would begin searching for the next fur-covered fad. Herzog identified a modern manifestation of our long-standing interest in new and unusual animals. In antiquity, explorers hunted for far-flung exotic species, which royal households often imported and displayed. Even the humble goldfish began as a luxury for the privileged classes. Native to Central and East Asia, the wild fish are usually covered in silvery gray scales. But ancient Chinese mariners had noticed the occasional yellow or orange variant wriggling in the water. Rich and powerful Chinese families collected these mutants in private ponds, and by the thirteenth century, fish keepers were breeding these dazzlers together. Goldfish domestication was born, and the once-peculiar golden fish gradually spread to the homes of less-fortunate Chinese families—and households elsewhere in Asia, Europe, and beyond. As goldfish grew in popularity, breeders stepped up their game, creating ever more unusual varieties. Using artificial selection, they created goldfish with freakish and fantastical features, and the world’s aquariums now contain the fantail, the veiltail, the butterfly tail, the lionhead, the goosehead, the golden helmet, the golden saddle, the bubble eye, the telescope eye, the seven stars, the stork’s pearl, the pearlscale, the black moor, the panda moor, the celestial, and the comet goldfish, among others. This explosion of types was driven by the desire for the exotic and exquisite—urges that we can now satisfy with genetically modified pets. We can also use genetic engineering to create animals that appeal to our aesthetic sensibilities, such as our preference for brightly colored creatures. For instance, a 2007 study revealed that we prefer penguin species that have a splash of yellow or red on their bodies to those that are simply black and white. We’ve bred canaries, which are naturally a dull yellow, to exhibit fifty different color patterns. And before GloFish were even a neon glint in Blake’s eye, pet stores were selling â€Å"painted† fish that had been injected with simple fluorescent dyes. With fluorescence genes, we can make a true rainbow of bright and beautiful pets. * Engineered pets also fit right into our era of personalization. We can have perfume, granola, and Nikes customized to our individual specifications—why not design our own pets? Consider the recent rise of designer dogs, which began with the Labradoodle, a cross between a Labrador retriever and a standard poodle. Though there’s no telling when the first Lab found himself fancying the wellgroomed poodle down the street, most accounts trace the origin of the modern Labradoodle to Wally Conron, the breeding director of the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia. In the 1980s, Conron heard from a blind woman in Hawaii, who wanted a guide dog that wouldn’t aggravate her husband’s allergies. Conron’s solution was to breed a Lab, a traditional seeing-eye dog, with a poodle, which has hypoallergenic hair. Other breeders followed Conron’s lead, arranging their own mixed-breed marriages. The dogs were advertised as providing families with the best of both worlds—the playful eagerness of a Lab with the smarts and hypoallergenic coat of the poodle. The rest, as they say, is history. The streets are now chock-full of newfangled canine concoctions: puggles (a pug-beagle cross), dorgis (dachshund plus corgi), and cockapoos (a cocker spaniel–miniature poodle mix). There’s even a mini Labradoodle for doodle lovers without lots of space. Tweaking the genomes of our companions allows us to create a pet that fulfills virtually any desire —some practical, some decidedly not. When I set out to get a dog, I thought I had settled on the Cavalier King Charles spaniel: small, soft, and bred for companionship. Then I discovered a breeder who was crossing Cavaliers with miniature poodles, yielding the so-called Cavapoo. I was sold. I loved the scruffier, shaggier hair of the Cavapoo, and given what I knew about biology, I figured that a hybrid was less likely to inherit one of the diseases that plague perilously inbred canines. A dog that didn’t shed would be an added bonus. Plus, poodles have a reputation for being brainy, and I’m an overachiever; if I was going to get a dog, I wanted to be damn sure he’d be the valedictorian of his puppy kindergarten class.

ICT AND FILM INDUSTRY

Digital technology in the past decade has totally changed the movie industry. Focusing on the crucial procedures of movie making and the impact that technology had on each of the areas, this research would look at recent reforms in the pre-production part of film making, furthermore we will try to know the new instruments, equipment and storage facilities being used by modern film makers and producers. Film distribution and the adverse impacts that technology has had on the movie industry, majorly on the illegitimate sale and piracy of copyrighted material is scrutinized. Post-theatre film distribution and the revolutionary breakthrough technologies in the industry are explored to look at the continuous changes in education and exercise of professionals in the movie industry. Computer generated graphics and the growing impact ICT has made in the industry is covered and the future of the film industry is predicted. ICT played a lot of positive role in different aspect of the world today. It has touched the medical industries, educational sector, governmental sector and even the movie or film industries. This paper discourse on how ICT have positively impacted the movie/film industry today. If we all remember our young age, we probably think of the 1700s, 1800s, or 1900s when the movie we watch are all cassettes or analog, and probably not durable, with the help of ICT today we can see changes in the video technology in the present world. As revolution continues in the movie industries the impacts of ICT have made the following changes; Technological tools have changed the script writing procedures by making use of the internet, using digital editing tools. The internet is also been used by scriptwriters to forward their scripts to producers, directors and potential cast associates in other to be reviewed by each characters either by peer review in a way of online forums. There has been a crucial increase in the past decade in the use of digital video cameras for film with low budget planning along with high definition video which is set to compete and go beyond the standard 35mm film both in quality and flexibility (culkin & Randle 2003). The post production phase of movie making has possibly been the most important impacted by the new technological inclination. The introduction of non-linear technology has made the use of film edited manually inefficient and time consuming. This procedure involves fixing and putting together film in a virtual screen where the directors, producers, and editors view the output of the film on screen. (culkin & randle 2003. p. 8) The whole course of film making has been completely technology driven, everything from the distribution to the projection of movie to audiences (consumers). However, the absence of commercial agreements between distributors and exhibitors of the films has slowed down the conversion to digital technologies. For instance, only 170 cinemas around the globe have converted to what is recognized as high-end digital (culkin & Randle 2003). Profit margins for the studios are recognizably decreasing, now being out casted or outnumbered by the game industry. So satellite delivery have recently made its first implementation on film industry and reports has shown that upon full execution of film distribution, it can save the film industry of cost of $700 million per year. (markman). A major problem the movie industry has been facing for the past years since the introduction of technology in the industry is the piracy and copyright issue. For this reason copyrighted movies have been easily affordable more than the original film produced for distribution. For movie and music content, these lead to quite a few lawsuits against peer-to-peer networks and individuals as result for stealing and distribution of these movies and music materials. This will always be one of the major industries issues the industry would have to face since the public (consumers) has access to this low cost copyrighted material (peer-2-peer and DVD writers). Nevertheless, the movie industry has endeavored to decrease the risk of piracy of movies by creasing the (CSS) known as content scrambling system in which only authentic DVD or VCD products which contain a certain decryption algorithm can play the particular movie. The same technology also has the capability to rearrange the video and audio on the DVD/CD so that only a DVD with the same decryption algorithm can play the film perfectly. The CSS technology is also designed to prevent users from direct copying of data from DVDs. Though, not long after the CSS technology was introduced, Norwegian teenagers reverse engineered a DVD technology by breaking the code that contain the decryption algorithm and uploaded decryption software for users around the world to use. These means that the movie industry would need to keep updating and also find and option to this difficulties (markman). The post-theatre market accounts roughly for three quarters of movie’s income during its lifetime. The principal of these are ideo rental shops which accounts for nearly half of all profits (). The DVD has completely brought a new dimension to the industry, becoming the fastest growing customer electronics item of all time (culkin & Randle 2003). DVD’s have undeniably increased film studio’s income when it decided to provide movie content to the home consumers with unbelievable picture and sound quality which does not worn out like the old VHS cassettes (markman). A new and rapidly developing area in the dis tribution processes of film industries is â€Å"Movie on demand†. This is a scenario where consumers download their desire movie over the internet instead of going down to their local video store or cinema house. The advantage of this technology is that virtually reduction or no-fees are needed to access the movie and the inconvenience if any when travelling to the video rental store or cinema house (culkin & Randle 2003). Rapid changes in the movie industry in recent years have forced many professionals around the world in audio and graphic industries to acquire new and specialized skills. This is an ongoing development in most industries. An example is that the post-production industries are expected to have continuous upgrades of equipment and software which will lead to continual re-training of employees/crews which in turns increase production costs (culkin & Randle 2003). Future distributions might comprise allowing editors in different countries to editors in various countries to edit film by just gaining access to digitized media on a server without actually leaving the comfort of his or her house. Satellite distributions to cinemas are at the vanguard of future film circulations and distributions. George Lucas, the director of star wars is looking forward to using satellite technology to project the rest of the episode in cinemas. This process of digitally distribution of the film through data projectors is known as E-Cinema (& Randle 2003). It is not expensive and definitely flexible in terms of distribution power; nevertheless Cinemas who wish to implement this new technology would have to acquire substantial expenses when converting to digital projection. This technology is very much still in the development level and the impact is not really seen yet (& Randle 2003). Gregory Huang article titled â€Å"the new face of the movie industry† studies the development in computer animated graphics in past years. Recent blockbuster movies like Spiderman 3 are good examples of how far computer graphics have come in recent years. The movie industry have come to a stage in which every single event in film making process can be computer generated . In past years, the technology illustrations of faces have not looked real when seen a lot closer as it is easier to make non-human objects like dinosaurs real, moreover, improvements in rendering human body or skin, lighting or darkening digital scenes and examining human characters or actors are now allowing animation engineers to manage and take control of every sing movement of pixels in an animated format (skin). Huang (2004) reports that an average budget for a bestseller film cost approximately $150 million where it is exceptional to see more than 50% of funding allocated to just the computer generated effect which in turns raise revenue to about average of $700 million per year. At least we can say that there is no area within the movie industry that has not been impacted by technology over the past years. The major impacts for pre-production phase have been focused on the development of script-writing tools as well as the increase use of internet to distribute script to editors, directors and other important parties within the industry. Generally equipment costs have drastically increased drastically reduced at the same time quality and flexibility of products has increased. The confinement of non-linear technology has all but made hand edited or manually edited movies an extinct and fast-track the whole film editing process (culkin & Randle 2003). The major downside which has increased concerns around film industries around the world is that it has become extremely easy for consumers around the world to copy copyrighted movie material and this keep generating problems in the industries till date. Finally we can say that the advancement in technology would only continue to bring improvement in the movie industries around the world and it is definitely set to revolutionize the industries for years to come.REFERENCECulkin, Nigel & Randle, Keith 2003, Facing the Digital Future: The Implications of Digital Technology for the Film Industry, University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire. Huang, Gregory 2004, The New Face of Hollywood, Technology Review, http://www. technologyreview. com/articles/04/09/huang0904. asp? p=0. Markman, David & Vega 2001, Mark, Digital Future: Movie Industry Tries to Keep One Step Ahead of Hackers, Daily Journal, Los Angeles. ICT AND FILM INDUSTRY Digital technology in the past decade has totally changed the movie industry. Focusing on the crucial procedures of movie making and the impact that technology had on each of the areas, this research would look at recent reforms in the pre-production part of film making, furthermore we will try to know the new instruments, equipment and storage facilities being used by modern film makers and producers. Film distribution and the adverse impacts that technology has had on the movie industry, majorly on the illegitimate sale and piracy of copyrighted material is scrutinized. Post-theatre film distribution and the revolutionary breakthrough technologies in the industry are explored to look at the continuous changes in education and exercise of professionals in the movie industry. Computer generated graphics and the growing impact ICT has made in the industry is covered and the future of the film industry is predicted. ICT played a lot of positive role in different aspect of the world today. It has touched the medical industries, educational sector, governmental sector and even the movie or film industries. This paper discourse on how ICT have positively impacted the movie/film industry today. If we all remember our young age, we probably think of the 1700s, 1800s, or 1900s when the movie we watch are all cassettes or analog, and probably not durable, with the help of ICT today we can see changes in the video technology in the present world. As revolution continues in the movie industries the impacts of ICT have made the following changes; Technological tools have changed the script writing procedures by making use of the internet, using digital editing tools. The internet is also been used by scriptwriters to forward their scripts to producers, directors and potential cast associates in other to be reviewed by each characters either by peer review in a way of online forums. There has been a crucial increase in the past decade in the use of digital video cameras for film with low budget planning along with high definition video which is set to compete and go beyond the standard 35mm film both in quality and flexibility (culkin & Randle 2003). The post production phase of movie making has possibly been the most important impacted by the new technological inclination. The introduction of non-linear technology has made the use of film edited manually inefficient and time consuming. This procedure involves fixing and putting together film in a virtual screen where the directors, producers, and editors view the output of the film on screen. (culkin & randle 2003. p. 8) The whole course of film making has been completely technology driven, everything from the distribution to the projection of movie to audiences (consumers). However, the absence of commercial agreements between distributors and exhibitors of the films has slowed down the conversion to digital technologies. For instance, only 170 cinemas around the globe have converted to what is recognized as high-end digital (culkin & Randle 2003). Profit margins for the studios are recognizably decreasing, now being out casted or outnumbered by the game industry. So satellite delivery have recently made its first implementation on film industry and reports has shown that upon full execution of film distribution, it can save the film industry of cost of $700 million per year. (markman). A major problem the movie industry has been facing for the past years since the introduction of technology in the industry is the piracy and copyright issue. For this reason copyrighted movies have been easily affordable more than the original film produced for distribution. For movie and music content, these lead to quite a few lawsuits against peer-to-peer networks and individuals as result for stealing and distribution of these movies and music materials. This will always be one of the major industries issues the industry would have to face since the public (consumers) has access to this low cost copyrighted material (peer-2-peer and DVD writers). Nevertheless, the movie industry has endeavored to decrease the risk of piracy of movies by creasing the (CSS) known as content scrambling system in which only authentic DVD or VCD products which contain a certain decryption algorithm can play the particular movie. The same technology also has the capability to rearrange the video and audio on the DVD/CD so that only a DVD with the same decryption algorithm can play the film perfectly. The CSS technology is also designed to prevent users from direct copying of data from DVDs. Though, not long after the CSS technology was introduced, Norwegian teenagers reverse engineered a DVD technology by breaking the code that contain the decryption algorithm and uploaded decryption software for users around the world to use. These means that the movie industry would need to keep updating and also find and option to this difficulties (markman). The post-theatre market accounts roughly for three quarters of movie’s income during its lifetime. The principal of these are video rental shops which accounts for nearly half of all profits (). The DVD has completely brought a new dimension to the industry, becoming the fastest growing customer electronics item of all time (culkin & Randle 2003). DVD’s have undeniably increased film studio’s income when it decided to provide movie content to the home consumers with unbelievable picture and sound quality which does not worn out like the old VHS cassettes (markman). A new and rapidly developing area in the distribution processes of film industries is â€Å"Movie on demand†. This is a scenario where consumers download their desire movie over the internet instead of going down to their local video store or cinema house. The advantage of this technology is that virtually reduction or no-fees are needed to access the movie and the inconvenience if any when travelling to the video rental store or cinema house (culkin & Randle 2003). Rapid changes in the movie industry in recent years have forced many professionals around the world in audio and graphic industries to acquire new and specialized skills. This is an ongoing development in most industries. An example is that the post-production industries are expected to have continuous upgrades of equipment and software which will lead to continual re-training of employees/crews which in turns increase production costs (culkin & Randle 2003). Future distributions might comprise allowing editors in different countries to editors in various countries to edit film by just gaining access to digitized media on a server without actually leaving the comfort of his or her house. Satellite distributions to cinemas are at the vanguard of future film circulations and distributions. George Lucas, the director of star wars is looking forward to using satellite technology to project the rest of the episode in cinemas. This process of digitally distribution of the film through data projectors is known as E-Cinema (& Randle 2003). It is not expensive and definitely flexible in terms of distribution power; nevertheless Cinemas who wish to implement this new technology would have to acquire substantial expenses when converting to digital projection. This technology is very much still in the development level and the impact is not really seen yet (& Randle 2003). Gregory Huang article titled â€Å"the new face of the movie industry† studies the development in computer animated graphics in past years. Recent blockbuster movies like Spiderman 3 are good examples of how far computer graphics have come in recent years. The movie industry have come to a stage in which every single event in film making process can be computer generated . In past years, the technology illustrations of faces have not looked real when seen a lot closer as it is easier to make non-human objects like dinosaurs real, moreover, improvements in rendering human body or skin, lighting or darkening digital scenes and examining human characters or actors are now allowing animation engineers to manage and take control of every sing movement of pixels in an animated format (skin). Huang (2004) reports that an average budget for a bestseller film cost approximately $150 million where it is exceptional to see more than 50% of funding allocated to just the computer generated effect which in turns raise revenue to about average of $700 million per year. At least we can say that there is no area within the movie industry that has not been impacted by technology over the past years. The major impacts for pre-production phase have been focused on the development of script-writing tools as well as the increase use of internet to distribute script to editors, directors and other important parties within the industry. Generally equipment costs have drastically increased drastically reduced at the same time quality and flexibility of products has increased. The confinement of non-linear technology has all but made hand edited or manually edited movies an extinct and fast-track the whole film editing process (culkin & Randle 2003). The major downside which has increased concerns around film industries around the world is that it has become extremely easy for consumers around the world to copy copyrighted movie material and this keep generating problems in the industries till date. Finally we can say that the advancement in technology would only continue to bring improvement in the movie industries around the world and it is definitely set to revolutionize the industries for years to come. REFERENCE Culkin, Nigel & Randle, Keith 2003, Facing the Digital Future: The Implications of Digital Technology for the Film Industry, University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire. Huang, Gregory 2004, The New Face of Hollywood, Technology Review, http://www. technologyreview. com/articles/04/09/huang0904. asp? p=0. Markman, David & Vega 2001, Mark, Digital Future: Movie Industry Tries to Keep One Step Ahead of Hackers, Daily Journal, Los Angeles.