Lately in my University 112 class, we've been talking about animal testing. Right or wrong? Many people do believe it is wrong and based on this website: it can't be any worse. In one terrible picture, you can see the scraps and remains of animals that were tested on. I apologize for the extremely graphic photo, but this is the real life documentation of animal treatments in research facilities.

"Great Ape" Resarch

Remains of animals being tested on

                                       
They were thrown into a bag like they were of no worth. I believe if animals are being tested on they at least need to be treated humanely. This brings us to the discussion of possibly giving animals human rights. This may sound scary if you don't understand the concept. However, rights in this sense would be treating them as if they have intelligence, awareness, emotional, and social needs.

For our in  class assignment, we had to create a source conversation based on the different views of varying medical researchers. The conversation I prepared is shown below and allows an insight into the opposing views on animal rights.

Stump: So you believe animals shouldn't have human rights. Why is that if they have all the features a person has?

Jones: Not all animals have features of a person. Honestly, if you think about it: what you're asking of animals may be too drastic.

S: Please go on and explain this to me then Mr. Jones.

J: Well, mice share around 90 percent of their DNA profile with humans. They don't have humanistic characteristics and we must go through with medical research to further our technology.

S: Correct, but what about the great apes? As we all know it, these animals share nearly all of the same DNA makeup with humans. Anyways, animals feel pain too and some (like the great ape) have emotional and social needs that should not be abused.

J: Humans feel pain too and go through with medical research of their own!

S: Humans know what they are signing up for when they do it though unlike innocent animals who can't communicate what they want or what they are feeling.

J: Alright, alright. Changing the gears, what about the ideas to extend medical research to mammals such as elephants and dolphins? Are you telling me they deserve these so called animal-human rights?

S: Look, when us good people talk about rights, we are only aiming to protect these animals. There is no need to  try and mock what is the right thing to be doing.

J: Well there needs to be a line drawn somewhere and if this law is passed, we will have no further animal testing. No more animal testing means no more extensions in the medical field. This means we could never find a cure for things like cancer and diabetes.

S: That could happen possibly, but protecting animals- especially the great apes- is the most important task our society should have.

J: I have to respect your opinions on this but I still feel they should not receive animal-human rights because we will put a halt on extending the human's medical race.

S: And I respect yours as well but I think it is too cruel and wrong to perform such tasks. So good day and good bye Mr. Jones.

J: Farewell Mr. Stump.



Picture 1 from: http://www.veganpeace.com/animal_cruelty/Pictures/remainstestedanimals.jpg
Picture 2 from: http://www.veganpeace.com/animal_cruelty/Pictures/primateresearch.jpg

Chasing Amy

On February 13, 2013, my University 112 teacher, Jane Lucas, gave the class an assignment based on the movie Chasing Amy and the short story “Flying Without a Map: Chasing Amy and the Quest for Meaningful Relationships.” The question was how did Holden’s morals, or ethics, differ from Alyssa’s? We also had to summarize each character’s standards, and consider what values determined their choices.

In the movie, Holden seemed to think that his morals and decisions were based on critical thinking about his overall self-worth and what others thought of him. He didn’t care as much for being young and impulsive but instead, thought carefully about each option before carrying out an action. On the other hand, Alyssa looks at her bad decisions as something that is supposed to happen with young age. She seems to think that every young adult should have a time to be reckless and impulsive. It’s something that helped her in her later years because she felt that she learned from the mistakes she made while she was still young. Even though what she had done with other men is done, she knows she can not take it back and does not regret it.

            There are most likely major differences in the way these two star-crossed lovers were raised. Holden most likely had a strict family life filled with lots of rules and parents enforcing him to always do the right thing. Alyssa, however, might have had parents who weren’t as there for her to guide her along the path of life. She may have had to figure things out on her own, which is why she believes it is okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. For example, the two pictures below can show a contrast between the two character’s personalities. It's quite a fate to see for an interesting twist to a love story.

 

Picture 1: http://cdnl.complex.com/mp/620/400/80/0/bb/1/ffffff/7d4f966d16b7e98f3baac700dd355a14/images_/assets/CHANNEL_IMAGES/GIRLS/2012/11/25-girls-you-were-crushing-on-in-1997/joey_lauren_adams_387657.jpg         

Picture 2: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DK5kClhvDys/TFljz-7atOI/AAAAAAAADjU/_dfam0COyCE/s400/hol.jpg

DADOES foil characters: Blog Post 1 for Univ 112

Over winter break, my University 112 teacher had us read the 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. This book was placed in 2021 where World War III killed millions of people and some of the population left to go to Mars. On this other planet, androids were deemed servants of the humans living there and were permanently banned from Earth. The novel is all about the main character, Rick Deckard, acting as a bounty hunter to search and kill the illegal androids. However, the problem he's faced with is the difficulty in distinguishing the humans from the new Nexus-6 robots. 
                             

Above is an alternative book cover for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Also shown above is the movie cover for Blade Runner, which is based on this book. For an assignment on January 23, 2013, we were asked to describe how Rick Deckard and John Isodore are characterized in chapters 1-4. Also, we had to describe how Isodore serves as a foil for Deckard.

Deckard is the main character in the story and he's greatly concerned with what people think about him.On the other hand, Isodore isn't as concerned with what people think about him. This is probably the way that more people should think since everyone is their own person. Since Isordre is what the society includes as "special", he feels like a complete outcast living alone in an apartment complex. Deckard's personality is reflected reversely from this. He is constantly trying to obey his boss' rules and fit into society by having as much empathy as possible. Philip K. Dick most likely chose Isodore as Deckard's focus because of the extreme differences between the two. By the end of the book, Isodore has befriended some of the androids as Deckard is on the mission to retire them all. Variations in two characters add a lot of controversial elements to the story. The author did a great job in deciding which character to pick as a foil for Rick Deckard.