Daniela gonzález level 6 portfolio

Perspectives: My English Journal English Language Program level 6

Author: Daniela Estefanía González Falconí

Perspectives: My English Journal

Perspectives: My English Journey By Daniela González Falconí English Language Program Yachay Tech Level 6-008 Teacher: Dennys Montaño July 25th, 2016 Imbabura – Ecuador

Author: Daniela Estefanía González Falconí

1

Daniela GonzĂĄlez Universidad Yachay Tech Imbabura, Ecuador

July 13, 2016

Dear portfolio reader: My name is Daniela and I thank you for reading my English portfolio. I have included some different types of essays and a research project to show how much I have improved my understanding and my writing in English in the sixth level at Yachay Tech.

First, with the response essays, I had to do three. The first one was with the help of a partner. In this case we could share some ideas and discuss about the papers that we used. It was interesting because for a response essay we had to write what we think about the topic and about what the paper says. So my partner and I had to do a combination about our criteria. After that I did a response essay about a Ted video, It was even more difficult because it is not easy for me to hear people when they talk English. And finally, my last response essay was difficult for me because I had to give my point of view in an objective way based on the papers.

After, I wrote an exploratory essay. It was about the analysis of sources to give reasons why something is right or not. We had to look for some sources and then defend our idea. For me, this essay was easier because I am crazy about that topic.

Then we had another team work, it was an interpretation essay. It was very interesting because my partner had a different point of view than me. And I believed that the discrepancies were caused by the person’s genre influence of seeing things. At the end we did

a great mix of our ideas and in some point it had sense, it was like action and consequence. In this essay my skills were better; I improved my grammatical and writing mistakes because of my classmate’s help.

In the argumentative essay, I was a little stressed because it was in class, so I did not have the enough time to review it and also I did not have any written brainstorm. But at the end it helped me a lot because it taught me that if I focus, I can write an essay easily and quickly. Also, I learned that before saying something, I must have something that supports me.

To write my research project was very interesting too. I liked to look for sources, and to analyze them. Also I learned a lot about it because I did an intensive searching. But the most important, it was not difficult for me to write this research because I was prepared with all the works I did before. And furthermore, I considered that my grammatical mistakes taught me a lot for this final project.

And finally, this reflective writing; I liked it a lot to think about how much I improved my English in this course. All these months had taught me a lot about grammar and the structure of sentences. It is true that practice is the only way of learning a language. I am very proud about myself.

Sincerely,

Daniela.

RESPONSE ESSAYS

Why Self-Educated Learners Often Come Up Short Why self-educated learners often come up short written in February 2010 by Scott H. Young is an excellent article which describes how difficult self-education can be. All the difficulties and complications that a self-taught person can witness in the way to acquire knowledge, are shown in this text. It is very important because many people claim that selfeducation is the only way to learn what you need in life. But it must be taken into account that there are aspects which influences in this kind of learning, making it more difficult than obtaining a degre at university. Only a few part of the population obtains unexpected achievements with self-education; it is because they are constant in their studies and they love to do it.

This article describes how self-education can be better or worse than attend university because of many aspects that must be taken into account when someone decides to learn by himself/herself. The outstanding characteristics are: the importance of a curriculum which guide the person what she/he must learn to acquire the necessary knowledge to develop something like someone who studies at university; the discipline that this person should show and the application of the acquired knowledges is very important in this kind of learning because without it, the person would lose all the information that learned and that is not the goal. The author tries to demonstrate that it is not as simple as it seems because although the person is not under pressure, it is most difficult to learn alone for the same reason. Then everything in this kind of learning is reduced to work, effort and dedication. If the person does not apply those aspects, then nothing will happen.

The author emphasize that self-education is not as easy as it seems. on my point of view he is trying to convince the audience that attending university is better and less complicated than learning by our own means. He should list all the benefits of this kind of learning and how productive it is, not only the difficulties that it presents. I remember when my calculus

teacher said that if we could not understand him in hour classes, the best way to learn his subject was by our own way. At the end, each person has their own way to learn, some people understand when somebody else teaches them, but other people only learn if they sit in front of the desk and begin to read those big books from the library. I agree with all the points he mentioned because they are true; but if you think about university, it is not easy either. At the end, I consider that it could be difficult if you think it, on the other way, if you like what you are doing, it should be easy in any part of the world and in any way you chose.

Self-education is a difficult way of learning which needs of dedication, patience, and effort. It could be not as easy but at the end the results will be a good reward. If someone wants to get something, this person will do everything to get it, it does not matter the way it happens. So, if a person wants to do self-education, she/he must consider that this kind of learning will have a lot of obstacles, but those all could be overcome.

How a Self-Taught programmer became CEO of Twitter and Square As a student, I pretend to be successful like Jack Dorsey, with the article “How a SelfTaught programmer became CEO of Twitter and Square” by Stevan Popovic. It was discussed with my partner in class. In a paragraph Dorsey said that “I don’t think there’s anything truly, organically new in this world. It’s just mash-ups of all these things that provide different perspectives that allow you to think in a completely different way, which allows you to work in a different way.” This article shows us how a simple programmer can be a successful person, where in each subtitle explain a part of his short life, with his weaknesses and skills.

First innovation these days is very common. Be a self –taught, programmer, CEO, like Dorsey, an employee said “the greatest product Jack Dorsey ever made, was Jack Dorsey.”

Second point interesting in the article was that Dorsey was compared with Steve Jobs, and when Jobs died, many reporters said that Dorsey is “the most fascinating man in tech.”

Another important main idea is the way of work with his team in twitter and Square.

In this paragraph I am going to respond to the principal ideas for this article. This text is a good inspiration for some people, because it shows how we get our goals in the way, the author explained in it. Second, creation is difficult, but when you like to do something, you work hard until you achieved your goals. Working in the biggest companies implied that you want a good job, you need to make your own way for achieving stability in your goals. I agree with the author when he says that the way to work together Dorsey is very interactive.

This allows their companies continue to improve due to the treatment you have with your coworkers. According to the text, Dorsey has an artist soul, it implies that he knows how work really is.

Finally, this text makes you think really to where you want to go. Learn more about the life of a self-taught boy, who has a success in his field, it is surprising. In this article the

author allows us to read clearly and precisely the life and success of this young Dorsey. The world is advancing in technology and we must move with it, and work hard to get what we want in our lives. I conclude that Jack Dorsey is a very intelligent person who knows how to use the tools to his benefit; it is an example to follow despite the difficulties that have crossed him on the road.

Identifying yourself through language (TEDx TALKS) Language is very important in everybody’s life because through it people can express their ideas and communicate themselves with someone else. Language can be written, spoken or expressed by signs. Each one of these types of language has big differences, because they are not expressed in the same way in the whole world. It is due to each country’s different origin, so each one has a different culture, other traditions and so a singular way to express their thoughts.

As Robyn Giffen mentioned there are more than 2000 different languages in the world, but most of them are only spoken but not written. Anyway, each language determine where a person is and so all his/her culture and traditions. Language is equivalent to a presentation of the person. She mentioned that spelling, dialect and word choice are the ways in that a person can show his/her language.

It means that a same word can have a variation of one or two letters from one country to another, but at the end it has the same meaning. Also according to the origin from the country, people would have a unique way to speak which can be identifiable immediately.

Although it has the same language as another, each one can have a different dialect. And finally, there are a lot of things in the world that have the same meaning but they are spoken in different ways, it is only because in a country it is called different than in another.

I consider that language is used to communicate ideas and thoughts in the whole world, it does not matter how it sounds or if a person uses a word different from mine to describe the same thing. At the end the most important aspect is to share knowledge and transfer what you want.

Spelling cannot be a barrier because at the end is only a variation in the writing of a word and only sometimes in the way it is pronounced, but at the end it has the same meaning.

Dialect must be considered an important part of each person because it is a way to identify

where she/he is from, thus her/his culture, traditions and most important, origins. For example, Cuban`s dialect and Colombia`s one, both countries speak spanish as their main language, but they do not have the same jingle; and it is because of their origins. And finally word choice, everybody in the whole world can have a different word to describe the same thing. For example, in the north part of Ecuador, people call “fritada” to the dish that in the south of the same country people call “sancocho”, and at the end it is the same dish, pork meat. But it is not a problem because it can be better to learn more about the origin of that word and of the region which uses it.

In conclusion, sometimes it could be difficult to understand someone else because of his/her language, how this person pronounce a word, the way of talking or even the word they use to explain something. But at the end it is not as complicated or relevant if that person can communicate what he/she wants to. Also it is a nice way to express people`s origins, culture and traditions, language is a way to demonstrate who each person is.

How does our language shape the way we think?

There are some things which seem extremely simple in our daily life, and sometimes we cannot notice the importance of them; for example language. It is important to communicate our ideas and to express ourselves with the world. For that reason, it is very difficult to imagine a world without languages. If we take care about what is around us, we should notice that there are a lot of little differences between languages. These variances can look insignificant but at the end they are more important than what we think.

How does our language shape the way we think is an article written by Lera Boroditsky on November 6th, 2009. It mentions that language has been considered an aspect which does not affect in a big scale our life. But it is not true, because some researches at Stanford University and MIT helped to demonstrate the opposite. Data collected from: China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia facilitated to understand that people who speak different languages think differently; and the grammar can affect how people perceive the world.

Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. For this reason, I think that each one has the power of molding people`s thoughts and giving them a different perspective of life.

Most questions of whether and how language shapes thought start with the simple observation that languages differ from one another. For example: when we said a sentence in English, we have to mark the verb tense, but in Indonesian you can not alter the verb to mark tense. In Russian you would have to alter the verb to indicate tense and gender. It shows that speakers of different languages have to encode it to speak it properly.

It is not only about grammatical and orthographic rules what people must follow, even though they are very important because they show the origin of a language; what is more significant for each culture. Sometimes, it can be appreciated more, the time of the action or

in other cases who did the action. Despite that, it does not mean that some speakers are not paying attention to the same things; all it means is that they're not talking about them.

Pormpuraaw is a small Aboriginal community on the western edge of Cape York, in northern Australia, Kuuk Thaayorre, the locals talks about the space in a different way, “Instead of words like "right," "left," "forward," and "back," which, is commonly used in English, defining space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define space.” (Boroditsky, 2009) It can be more useful to express space in an absolute reference frame, because of the facilities to orientate in anyway in the whole world. Even in places that you have not been before. Then we can admit that variations in language affect the perspective with people perceive the world. But it does not mean that things change their position in the space.

Some aspects of how we perceive time can be affected by language. As an example, English speakers talk about time in terms of length, using words such as much" "big", and "little" rather than "short" and "long". According with Lera Boroditsky, this may happen because of an influence of the culture between speakers. And it affects directly the way they recognize the world.

Although time is a universal measurement. We can see that it can be distorted by the incorrect use of some words, which can affect the ideas that people create about their reality.

For example: English speakers confuse about measurement related by distance information, but in the other way Greek speakers get confused by amounts.

By comparing the perception that Russian and English speakers have about colors, it was determinate that both do not have the same idea. For example, each one has a different perception of shades of blue. Russians recognize two types of blue, dark blue and light blue while English speakers only have one blue.

But it does not mean that for English speakers there are not more than one blue, it is just because they do not have enough words to determinate each blue that appears around them. It is just a lack of vocabulary to express themselves.

The grammatical gender can differ from one language to another. There are languages which have two genders and another such as Australian Aboriginal languages that have more than sixteen genders. It requires that speakers improve their languages by changing some grammatical aspects depending on the nouns’ gender.

I think it can also be considered an excess of grammatical sources, because at the end the words have the same meaning. It does not matter what gender is applicated to this. Also, gender is not as objective and for that each language has a diversity of different genders. But some other languages do not care about the gender because at the end the word is only classified as a specific kind.

In conclusion, there are some aspects in languages that can make them singular and unique. These can give people a certain perception of the world; their own perception according to the way that they use to describe things around them. Although these differences are almost insignificant, they will be important if you take into account all the changes they provoke. If you analyze them, you will see that at the end all the languages talk about the same thing in a different way.

Bibliography

Boroditsky. (6 June, 2009). Edge. Retrieved 27 April, 2016, from https://www.edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think

EXPLORATORY ESSAY

Complexities of Choosing an End Game for Dementia When I was a child, my great-grandmother had Alzheimer; she was on the first stage.

I did not understand what happened with her. It was too difficult for me because she used to forget things easily, like the hour and date, although she asked for it every ten minutes. The time passed and she got worse, and after some years she stopped recognizing people around her and she could not do anything by herself too. This disease is only an example of dementia, because it is a general term used to name illnesses which affect the brain cells and in consequence daily life, prohibiting people to think clearly. Some types of dementia are reversible but others are not and at the end they finish with the patient in a painful way. The last years of a patient who suffer dementia are terrible, this person cannot do anything by herself; gently lose memories even if these are basic such as: going to the bathroom, eating, walking. It is because the brain is dying and then all the abilities begin to disappear. Also, other cells in the body begin to die. For that reason, there are some people who would prefer to end with this illness before this ends with them. Nowadays, the complications of applying an end game for dementia are the focus of an interminable discussion.

The application of an end game for this illness is a particular but not ethical way for people who presents the progressive symptoms of dementia and they do not want anybody doing what they must do by themselves. Then, the person would stop eating; drinking and would not extend life in an artificial way.

There exists two faces, in one there are all the patients who suffer the illness, and in the other one there is all the people who wants to defend the patient’s life. They think it is not correct to finish the life of dementia patients.

In one hand, the patient who is suffering dementia or someone who knows that it is probably to acquire the illness with the pass of time; will establish a document where this person will indicate what he wants people around him do before he dies. The first steps of

dementia are not as bad as people imagine. In these, the patient begins to lose the memory with small things; in most of the cases the called short term memory is very deficient in these people.

But that is not the worst, when the illness is progressing; the patients begin to lose oldest memories. So, they stop recognizing relatives and places that nowadays are important in their life. And at the last steps of dementia, the patient is not capable to do basic things such as eating or going to the bathroom by themselves. And also in these steps, the body cells begin to die and the person starts to present death skin and to lose mobility. In conclusion the person is like a vegetable that is getting putrid. All this is caused because of a grey mass which affects the brain of the person.

For all these problems, some people who suffer these illnesses want to put an end to this because most of them consider that they don’t want someone else doing things for them.

“By that point, “you lost your dignity a long time ago; you have probably been a burden on your family for six or seven years.”” (Span, 2015) As Dena Devis, a patient of dementia mentioned, they do not want to suffer before they die. So, they wish to leave a document with all the things that they would like for them before dying. For example there is a medicine which can provoke a heart attack; most of patients want to apply this medicine in their life when they begin to present the worst symptoms. Also another way to stop the suffering is avoiding relatives or doctors from taking care of the patient, and then this person will have a natural death.

On the other hand, it is a big problem and controversial topic for the relatives of the patient: The idea of the sanctity of life, that one has no right to oppose nature and has even a duty to continue to live to the (bitter) end, or that there is value in undergoing the

process of decline for yourself and/or for your significant others, is also brought forward against euthanasia or assisted suicide. (De Beaufort & Van de Vathorst, 2016) Society does not want to kill their relatives. It will be very difficult for them to apply to the person the end game medicine. It is not easy principally because the person who signs the legal document was not the person who is dying. So, the relatives will be in a conflict with themselves without knowing if they must do something to avoid the lethal medicine.

Also, stop helping their relative when this person cannot do things by himself will be a problem, because they will see their loved relative dying a little bit each day. “To lethally inject a person who is unable to request death undermines the "safeguard" of consent. Even if the person, while competent, requested euthanasia for dementia, now the person

is

unable

to

change

their

mind.�

(Schadenberg,

2016)

According

to

Netherlands`government, for some people, the prospect of ever suffering from dementia may be sufficient reason to make an advance directive (living will). This can either be drawn up independently or discussed first with the family doctor. A physician can perform euthanasia on a patient with dementia only if such a directive exists, if statutory care is taken and if, in his opinion, the patient is experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.

In this way, legally this medicine, is not accepted everywhere, although there is a legal document because it is considered as euthanasia. Neither permitting the relatives to stop helping the patient, it will be considered as they kill the person.

If someone wants to finish his life before suffering all the pain which can cause an illness, it could be right if that person took that decision before dementia began to affect his brain. Such as euthanasia, taking an end medicine for dementia or stopping taking care of the ill person must be a decision taken with care by the patient advised by a doctor. The person with dementia must be consciences that in future there will be other treatments which could

help him. But also the family and doctors must consider of what the person wants, it is not possible to obligate someone else to live if this person does not want to.

Bibliography De Beaufort, I. D., & Van de Vathorst, S. (March 26th, 2016). Springer Link. Retrieved May 19th, 2016, from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-016-8095-2 Schadenberg, A. (January 8th, 2016). The Pulse. Retrieved May 19th, 2016, from The Netherlands approves euthanasia for severe dementia : https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/the-netherlands-approves-euthanasia-for-severedementia Span, P. (January 19th, 2015). The New York Times. Retrieved May 19th, 2016, from Complexities of Choosing an End Game for Dementia: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/health/complexities-of-choosing-an-end-gamefor-dementia.html

INTERPRETATIVE ESSAY

The Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo is considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists, and this recognition is due to the expressionism and surrealism that shows in every of her pieces of art. Frida was born on July 6th, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico. That city was her home while she was not in Europe or another American country. Kahlo got married with Diego Rivera in 1929; her husband was an artist too, and he was the principal influence in Kahlo's life and painting style. Also, she was inspired by the indigenous groups of her country and the beauty of women. The Two Fridas expresses the duality of a woman, i.e. the double vision that Frida has about herself. On the right side of the picture, she looks strong and in love with her husband; but on the left side, she has a completely broken heart that is bleeding out because of her divorce with Diego Rivera. In this piece of art, Frida shows two parts of her life: pain and happiness.

The Two Fridas is an oil painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo that is stored at the Arte Moderno Museum in Mexico City. The painting was the first large-scale work done by Kahlo and is considered one of her most famous pieces of art. It is a double self-portrait, depicting two versions of Kahlo seated together. One is wearing a white European-style dress while the other is wearing a traditional Tehuana dress. Some art historians have suggested that the two figures in the painting are a representation of Frida's dual heritage. Her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was German; while her mother, Matilde Calderon, was a mix of Spanish and Amerindian. The picture was created in 1939, the same year that Kahlo divorced Diego Rivera.

Frida had a difficult life which was full of diseases and accidents. Those situations could not destroy her because she was supported by her husband Diego Rivera. However, when he left her, everything in her life collapsed. For this reason, the picture shows two main parts of her life. On the right side, she is complete, and she is broken on the opposite side.

First, this piece of art shows two Fridas almost identical seated on a bench in front of a stormy sky. The Frida that has the torn open heart is dressed with European clothes, and the other one who seems complete is wearing a traditional Mexican custom. They are holding hands and sharing an artery which join both hearts. It seems like the strong one tries to help to the weak Frida’s heart. Also, it suggests that Diego loved only the Mexican part of Frida.

Frida was her own best friend, and she did not have anyone else than herself.

On the right side, Frida is on a yellow and blue blouse combined with a brown skirt.

This is a typical custom from Mexican indigenous groups. She liked to wear in that way because it was part of her identity and it showed her patriotism. However, this aspect increased when she got married with Diego Rivera because of the ideas they shared. In this side, she shows a mini-portrait from young Diego. This mini-portrait seems to be connected to the artery which means that her heart is entire because of the love she felt for Diego.

On the left side, there is a Frida who wears a white dress. This kind of dress is typical from that epoch. Her clothes are bloodstained, and that blood comes from the artery that is cut off by herself with surgical pincers. This means that she is injured because of the divorce with Diego. However, she wants to cut off what connects her with him, in this case the artery and her Mexican past.

The dark stormy skies shows how did Frida felt. For example, it reflects her anger, sadness, and her broken heart. Both Fridas look upset and slightly angry; however, European Frida’s expression looks slightly sadder than the Mexican Frida.

In conclusion, The Two Fridas expresses all the pain and sadness that Frida felt when she divorced Diego. In one hand, she showed how complete she was during their marriage.

On the other hand, she shows all the pain that she had when she was single, it is expressed with the opened heart and its blood. Also, The Two Fridas shows how Frida Kahlo could express all her feelings through painting.

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

Should censorship be practiced in school?

Censorship affects people in a lot of different ways. Principally because when it is applied; it would be very difficult for that person to know what is going on or why things are happening. Also, it is not good for taking decisions because people do not know anything about the circumstance. Censorship at school always depends always in what people want to express; in schools it can be leagued to the students, book and teachers.

If it is about a law or something that is going wrong, everybody must know about it because they are affected, but if it is something rude and insulting, it can be ignored to avoid people getting hurt. Children can grow up without knowing that kind of information.

First, how much a child can be affected by a comment about discrimination or violence. In that time of life, it is easier to be affected by a comment than after when the person is older. It is because a little child does not have a formed perspective about life neither knows about all the evil that can be around them. “This is the first time in our history that children have had the greatest preponderance of ideas, opinions, values and - most importantly - images delivered as a takeaway directly to their eyes and ears, without the knowledge and mediation of their parents.” (Aric, 2008) It can affects to the children to grew up with the idea that nobody is less than someone else or maybe that they do something wrong when it is not true.

But these children are not affected only for outside comments, sometimes their own classmates are who notice them about what their teachers do not want them to know.

If a little child shows something offensive or says something violent; it can be easily quiet or repaired. But if a book or something printed has violent information, it could be a bad problem because the child is more susceptible to catch this kind of information and to believe in what he or she is reading about. “Almost 70% of censorship demands are directed at material in school classrooms or libraries.” (National Coalition Against Censorship , 2016) Sometimes, people believe they are not doing humiliating comments, but it is not as it seems,

for some groups of people something can be normal because they grew up with that but for another group of people it can be invidious. So it is an extra job for the teachers to look for something that can not affect anyone and also try to take care about what is mentioned in class.

And the last one, teachers have been muted in some cases because it is very simple to be in problems if you have some susceptible students. Sometimes although the teacher does not want to give a bad comment about something, it could be misinterpreted for the student. So, a lot of teachers decide that it is better when they say what they must about the class and do not talk about anything else. “However, even with the most supportive of atmospheres, teachers were cautious about their text selections.” (Agee, 1999) it affects also in what they want to share with their students, for that reason most schools has a number specific of books that can be shared, because they were analyzed that they do not have anything that can affect to the student.

On the other hand, “The convention acknowledges that the exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions. But it sets out a broad framework that not only protects children from government censorship but, arguably, from restrictions imposed by schools or even their own parents.” (Magid, 2012) So it is a very difficult decision, some people approves the restrictions but the state protects rights about freedom opinion. It must be considered that if we talk about children, people should think twice because they do not have a formed opinion. Also, “Freedom of speech is compromised. Media giants can push their agendas under the censorship. It hinders upon the freedom of the press. It shelters people from things that they need to know about. Censorship in books, plays, and movies may affect the overall feeling and meaning of the writing.” (The Spectator, 2016) If there is information that is hidden, it can be negative for the children too, because if want to talk about history,

and in this part of history there is black people who are damaged. Teachers can not forget that important part of history because in some way a child can get in a bad way this information.

In conclusion, censorship is very important in children because with this they were not susceptible to bad information such as porn or any kind of violence. But it must be taken into account that not everything must be hidden for them, because to avoid to damage their susceptibility, teachers must be quiet. Also, no one knows if something that affects a children, does not affect another one.

Bibliography Agee, J. (1999, November). The Effects of Censorship on Experienced High School English Teachers. Retrieved June 30, 2016, from http://www.albany.edu/cela/publication/article/censor.htm Aric, S. (2008, November 11). What children need is censorship. Retrieved June 30, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/11/internet-digitalmedia Magid, L. (2012, November 13). We Don't Need Censorship to Protect Children. Retrieved June 30, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/11/13/we-dontneed-censorship-to-protect-children/#5426d103e319 National Coalition Against Censorship . (2016, May 9). Censorship and the First Amendment in Schools: A Resource Guide. Retrieved June 30, 2016, from https://www.webjunction.org/documents/webjunction/Censorship_in_Schools_Learni ng_Speaking_and_Thinking_Freely_The_First_Amendment_in_Schools.html#proble m The Spectator. (2016, December 7). Censorship does both harm, good. Retrieved June 30, 2016, from https://www.waterloo.k12.ia.us/schoolsites/thespectator/censorship-doesboth-harm-good

Research paper

Name: Daniela Estefanía González Falconí.

Section: L6-008.

Date: July 7th, 2016.

Teacher: Dennys Montaño.

Topic: Potential ethical reasons to avoid the use of animal organs to save human life.

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMAN

González

Abstract This article describes potential reasons why scientists should not use animal’s organs on saving human life, as an alternative the medical researches should investigate new ways to take care about humans` health, like organs that are made in a laboratory. In this article, six sources are shown which expose the negative aspects about using animal organs. These are based mainly on investigation data and experimental analysis.

Xenotransplantation is the name given to the transplant of an organ from one specie to another. This process has a considerable number of different consequences. First, scientists do not have a clear idea about the kind of what illnesses can be transmitted from different species by its organs. Second, human usually display rejection for animals’ organs, therefore it will take a considerable amount of time, waste of sources and the suffering of the animal to discover how their organs can be compatible. And finally, researchers should not manipulate animals because they are living creatures that constantly suffer from pain in these laboratories.

With the whole information that was collected in this paper, it is clear that xenotransplantation is not the best alternative to save humans. Science has a considerable improvement in the last century; hence it would be possible someday to create an organ without damaging another living being.

Keywords: xenotransplantation, animal organs, transplantation, cons and pros xenotransplantantion, rejection organs.

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMAN

González

Potential reasons to avoid the use of animal organs to save human life Introduction Genetic science has had a lot of different developments during the last years.

Transplantation of animals’ organs began when “during the 1960s, …. Chimpanzee kidneys had been transplanted into patients with renal failure.” (Medscape, 2014). It was the first treatment used to save a human life with a nonhuman organ. In this field, the use of animal species has unleashed controversy around the world, especially in those who defend the integrity of these beings. Xenotransplantation is not allowed legally in any country because it has not been proved how much it can affect the human life. However nowadays it is practiced on animals, such as: pigs, baboons, and some chimpanzees. It was practiced around 18 times in the past century on humans, but without the knowledge of how much the person can be affected; because all of them died within one year of surgery. Since then, medical scientists have been looking for positive results in their experiments to prove that xenotransplantation using animals is the best alternative for people.

In order to do a xenotransplantation, scientists have to adapt the creature’s organs to the human's in a very precise way in order to avoid health issues with the patients. This procedure consists on making blood transfusions to the animal which has the needed organ.

Then, this living being must have both an adequate diet, and it should take medicine which would eliminate any kind of known virus or possible illness. Furthermore the animal must be in a sterilized captivity to be free of damaging organisms such as viruses or bacteria. After a lot of medical treatments and tests, the animal is ready to be used as a donor although there is permanent risk in this kind of procedure. But it is not as simple as it seems because even though pigs’ and most of monkeys’ organs share similarities to human ones, they have some differences that can lead to health issues to the patient including a high risk of death.

Xenotransplantation does not have only scientific problems, there are ethical issues too.

Content: Literature review................................................................................................. 1 Health problems that can be caused by xenotransplantation ............................. 1 Patient’s rejection .............................................................................................. 2 Animal’s pain ..................................................................................................... 3 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 4 Conclusion............................................................................................................ 5 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 6

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMANS

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Literature review Health problems that can be caused by xenotransplantation First, “There are diseases that animals, like pigs, contract and humans do not, sparking some concerns that xenotransplantation would introduce new diseases to people.” (The Global Issues Blog, 2015). Until now it is not proved what kind of diseases an animal can transmit to a human by organ transplantation, but it is not unknown that there are large possibilities. Through years it has been shown how animal’s illnesses have affected humanity, such as: anthrax1, avian influenza2, rabies3, etc. All these diseases in a direct or an indirect way can turn into a disaster for humans if these are not treated on time. Therefore, if there is an organ transplant and it carries some type of virus or bacteria that can affect humans; it would be disastrous for people until scientists can discover about it and how it can be eradicated.

Despite of all the mentioned above, scientists affirm that there is little to no chance to spread illnesses from animals to humans. “A more promising and more tested approach has been modifying pigs through microinjection techniques and in vitro fertilization so that they are “humanized”” (Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 2000). It is because the donors will have an exhaustive revision and also they will be created to give their organs. But nevertheless it has not been proven that they are completely healthy because blood has hundreds of compounds such as proteins, lipids, and aminoacids which can be incompatible with humans. A little change in the structure on an aminoacid between an animal and human is enough for blood to be refused after transplantation.

1

“Anthrax is caused by a spore-forming bacteria and most commonly occurs in wild and domestic herbivore mammals.” (Wahington State Department of Health, 2014) 2 “Avian influenza (bird flu) refers to the disease caused by avian influenza A viruses. These viruses occur naturally among wild water birds, and can infect poultry and other birds and animals.” (Wahington State Department of Health, 2014) 3 “Rabies is a severe viral disease that affects the central nervous system. All warm-blooded mammals, including people, can get rabies. Rabies is almost always fatal if treatment is not begun soon after exposure to the virus.” (Wahington State Department of Health, 2014)

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMANS

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Patient’s rejection Another reason to avoid the use of animals’ organs to save people’s life is the rejection that exists from transplantations. “While the immune response is beneficial when directed towards foreign organisms, it is clearly undesirable when directed towards a transplanted organ. Such is the strength of the human immune response that transplantation of human organs between unrelated individuals is a dangerous experimental procedure” (Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 1996). It is a big barrier for scientist to practice xenotransplantation, principally because until now there has not been any person who has survived more than 3 months after the procedure. The people who underwent the transplantation suffered a lot including their families due to they were expecting that the patient’s health improve. At the end, the body rejects the transplant organ. It is the worst part of xenotransplantation nowadays: It generally takes several generations of breeding to knock out both copies of just one given gene in a pig. Deleting multiple genes or swapping them for their human counterparts takes many more generations, because every litter contains pigs with different combinations of the modified genes. (Reardon, 2015)

So, scientist try to make animals’ organs the most similar to human’s ones, but it is extremely complicated to make them equally. Pigs, baboons, mice, gorillas, sheep and humans are totally different species, thus their organs too.

Every year, 150,000 people wait for an organ transplantation, but half of them die before they can get one. It is not debatable that humanity has increased a lot in last century, mainly due to the considerable increase in the birth rate, and the reduction on the number of deaths. Hence, there are a lot of people who get sick and need a new organ. For that reason it is indispensable to produce a new way of creating new organs without damaging someone else's.

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMANS

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Animal’s pain Also, what do people believe about animals? They are not our life source nor our guinea pigs. They are on earth planet to share it with humanity and as Mahatma Gandhi said “To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being”. If scientist does not try to do experiments with humans, so they must not try to do it with another animal.

It is cruel for them, they do not talk, but it does not mean that they do not feel. For example: “Pigs like to play. They’re smart. They have good long-term memories, and they can be socially manipulative with other pigs. They can tell which people are nice to them and which aren’t.” (Greenwood, 2015) It is proved scientifically that most animals are very smart and they feel more than what people think. Scientists do not want to experiment with transplantation directly in humans because they know that it could end on the person’s death and yet they practice ir on animals knowing that they feel every single inject.

Anyway it is very difficult to ask a society to avoid experiments with animals when most of them eat those animals. If most humanity believes that animals are here to serve for their whims, it will not be easy to promote respect for these living beings. As a result, In order for it to be ethically acceptable to use pigs for xenotransplantation it will be necessary to ensure that the conditions in which they are bred and reared are of the highest possible standard from the point of view of welfare, and that any pain and suffering is kept to a minimum. (Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 1996)

If it is not possible to change the way people think about animals and how they can help humanity in different ways, it may be possible to treat them with the least cruelty as possible. For that it must be taken into account that experiments must not be painful and that these can not directly damage the animal. Moreover, it would be helpful if they were treated as a human patient, without unnecessary tortures, promoting quality of life of the animal.

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMANS

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Discussion It is true that the use of animal organs to save human life can open a wonderful world where people stop dying in the waiting room of a hospital; but scientists must consider all the problems that it could generate. Xenotransplantation present potential problems. First, scientist do not know how much the human can be affected by an animal organ, because it is seen that there are a lot of viruses and bacteria that can be active when they are on humans’ bloodstream. Another reason is that humans can present rejection to animals’ organs, consequently the probabilities that the person lives for a long period of time are extremely low; and it is something that can not be changed because of the genetic variation between both species. And the principal issue is that people think that they can continue doing anything they want with the animals and they do not take into account the rights that animals have.

For all the reasons mentioned, it would be a better idea to develop the creation of a series of synthetic organs. These ideas were formed because it is noticeable that there are more pitfalls than promises in using animal organs for humans. It is because there will be a lot of pain for animals, and also for humans because of the expectation that the organs will work the same in both of them.

On one hand of the analyzed sources think that xenotransplantation is a good option to save human life and that it must be investigated deeper because if it works, there will be a large number of people who can save their life with this treatment. On the other hand, there are some sources which support the idea of stopping doing experiments with animals and most important that they are not here merely to serve human's purposes.

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMANS

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Conclusion In conclusion, science has developed a lot of different technologies during modern times. One of these tepersonchnologies is organ transplantation. According to some discoveries, scientists are able to practice xenotransplantation. Evidently, this experiment is not as simple as it seems because it includes a variety of different aspects that must be taken into account, such as: the illnesses that can be transmitted from specie to another or what kind of illnesses the animals’ organ can resist. It is also necessary to consider which are the probabilities where this process can work on a human, and finally that people can not do anything they want with animals.

In spite of the fact that we are in the 21st century, it is notable that humans do not understand that other animals are in our same level. Just the only thing that we know is how to invade their home, but it does not give us the right to believe that we are their bosses. And it must be considered at the moment that someone wants to experiment with animal life, if they do not experiment with humans, why can they do it with animals?

ANIMALS’ ORGANS MUST NOT BE USED ON HUMANS

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Bibliography Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. (2000, January 13). Animal organs for human transplantation: how close are we? Retrieved July 4, 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1312205/ Greenwood, A. (2015, June 15). Pigs Are Highly Social And Really Smart. So, Um, About Eating Them... Retrieved July 4, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/15/are-pigsintelligent_n_7585582.html Medscape. (2014, September 9). Xenotransplantation. Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/432418-overview Nuffield Council on Bioethics. (1996). Animal to Human transplants. London: KKS. Reardon, S. (2015, November 10). Nature. Retrieved July 4, 2016, from New life for pig-to-human transplants: http://www.nature.com/news/new-life-for-pig-to-human-transplants-1.18768 The Global Issues Blog. (2015, November 26). Connect US. Retrieved July 4, 2016, from 8 Crucial Pros and Cons of Xenotransplantation: http://connectusfund.org/8-crucial-pros-and-cons-ofxenotransplantation Wahington State Department of Health. (2014, January 24). Animal Transmitted Diseases. Retrieved July 4, 2016, from http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/AnimalTransmittedDiseases

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